We highlighted Word 365’s Side to Side view but there’s another side-by-side viewing trick that works for any two windows on either Windows or Mac.
Side by Side or Split View is great for many situations. No fussing about switching between windows or getting lost with all the open application. For example, Word on one side and Excel on another, or Word and a web browser, two Word documents or PowerPoint and a PDF.
Windows 10
Windows 10 can display programs either side-by-side, top and bottom or even four windows with one in each corner.
There are various ways to do it (see below) but the easiest & fastest is pressing the Windows key with one of the four arrow keys. Win + <– (left arrow) sends the current window to the left side. Win + –> to the right.
Change the half n half proportions by dragging the vertical edge of one window, a bar with handle will appear. The other window will shrink.
There are other ways to get the ‘side-by-side’ look.
- Drag a window (from the title bar) to the left or right of the screen. A discreet box will appear on that side, release the mouse and the window will snap to that side.
- Thumbnails of the other windows will appear, click one to see that on the other side of the screen.
- Right click on the taskbar and choose ‘Show windows side-by-side’. If you have many programs open, the result can be an unholy mess. Happily, you can right-click the taskbar again to click an Undo option.
Split into four windows
Windows can also show four windows, one in each corner.
Drag a window to a corner (a discreet box appears in a quarter of the screen). Release the mouse and the window will snap to that corner/quarter of the screen.
MacOS Split View
On the Mac it’s called Split View.
To enter Split View, choose a window/app, click on the green ‘full screen’ icon, click & hold it to show a small menu.
- Enter Full Screen – the default for that button.
- Tile Window to Left of Screen
- Tile Window to Right of Screen
That’s in macOS Catalina. In El Capitan, click and hold the green button, then drag the window to left or right.
In Split View the top menu bar disappears because it’s in Full Screen mode, move your mouse near the top of the screen and it’ll appear.
There’s a vertical line between the two windows, drag that bar left/right to adjust the window sizes. See image above.
Side to Side – a touchy way to view Word documents
Inside the Office ‘all in one’ app for Apple and Android
Fixing Office confusion and other hassles on Windows Start menu
