You’re thinking this is a post about a competing operating system, right? How dare I?! Actually, it’s about those rectangles you use every day that provide a peek into your data, documents, and drowning — online, that is.

Yes, those windows. How do you keep them organized? How do you remain focused on what matters? How do you find the one you’re looking for? How many is too many?

Merge Windows

In applications that support standard tabbed windows, you can easily merge multiple windows into one. You can also move the current tab to a new window so it stands alone.

Both of these commands are in the Window menu. If you don’t see them, the current application doesn’t support the feature. And if they‘re greyed out, your window probably only has one item. Learn more.

Organize Windows

Originating largely as Exposé in Mac OS X Panther (10.3) in 2003, Mission Control is a way of seeing all windows on the screen at once to either switch among them or reorganize among workspaces. You can invoke Mission Control using a keyboard key, opening the Mission Control application, or moving to a preset screen corner.

Mission Control also manages Spaces, for segregating windows from each other in order to focus on specific applications or activities. For example, I keep Chrome, Safari, and Zoom in separate spaces from each other because I don’t use them in tandem.

I also keep Mail, Reeder, and Fantastical in Full Screen Mode so I can truly focus on each without the visual distraction of other windows in the background. Mission Control keeps track of the arrangement. Additionally, you can right-click the Dock icon of an app and go to Options to assign it to the current desktop or to all desktops.

Finally, if you have multiple displays, you can have a different set of spaces for each. This and a handful of other settings are in the Mission Control pane of System Preferences.

Since 2007, on most Apple keyboards designed for the Mac as well as Mac notebook keyboards with a row of function keys, the F3 key () has the dedicated function of invoking Mission Control. Learn more from Apple about how to use Mission Control.

Split View

On macOS Catalina (10.15) and later, you can tile two windows in Split View. Each behaves as a full screen window, meaning the Dock and menu bar are hidden until you mouse to their respective locations. You can drag the divider between the windows to resize them or swap the windows by dragging one toward the other.

If you want to focus your attention on two windows, first make sure they’re both in the same Space. Then, mouse over the green window control and choose to Tile Window to Left or Right of Screen. (You may have noticed earlier that these commands are also in the Window menu.) Finally, choose the other window on the screen that you want to tile on the other side.

To exit Split View, you can mouse to the top of the screen and click a green window control to remove that window from the view. Do the same for the second window, which is now full screen in another space. Or, enter Mission Control, hold Option, and click the arrows in the top left corner of the Split View space. Both windows will return to normal.

Powerful Windowing

For more flexibility in resizing and arranging windows on the screen, check out Moom from Many Tricks. Moom starts similarly with a popover under the green window control and quickly outpaces its competition.

You can tile windows to the right, left, top, and bottom, save preset arrangements, precisely specify the space in which a window should live, set keyboard shortcuts, and so much more.

In my book, there’s such a thing as too many windows. I’m not very document-centric so most of my spaces are limited to just a few windows at a time.

As a result, I actually rarely invoke Mission Control, instead favoring the Application Switcher (Command+Tab), switching between one application’s windows (Command+`), and moving between spaces (swiping mouse or trackpad with two or three fingers, respectively).

But to each their own. How do you keep your windows straight?