El Capitan Split Screen: If you can't get it to work

[Mike Alessi]

Hey folks,

Just a heads up. If you can't get Split Screen to work (side by side full screen windows) in El Capitan, you'll need to enable "Displays have separate spaces", located in System Preferences > Mission Control. This will require you to log out and back in. Then, simply click and hold on the green "Full Screen" button and drag the window to another part of the screen. Voila!

 

[Bigeric23]

Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[woteva65]

Cheers for tip. Still a bit buggy as a process.
In the end though an app such as Moom is still a better choice for windows management.

 

[OZsMac]

Must admit this is my biggest disappointment with El Cap / 10.11, split screen mode is very generation 0. A few points that would help it along;

Gesture on trackpad to split window left or right, also matching keyboard shortcut (like windows)
Allow the windows to be split without having to be in full screen view mode (by default)

Come on Apple, you can do better than this, I'll keep on using BetterTouchTool, gives me the capability with all the customisation required (drag windows to "snap" and setup trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts).

 

[Alan Abraham2]

Hi,
I can't get it to work on Microsoft Excel 2011.
Everything else runs perfect...

 

[Pepsileptic]

I'm loving the split screen. Is anyone else having this problem? I make a desktop with two apps and when I click on something in one of the apps, it is pushing me to a separate desktop. I then have to 4 finger swipe to get back to my split screen. I understand that it is a Beta, so I'm not real worried. Just throwing it out there.

 

[TurboTiger]

Great info
Tks

 

[HankAZ]

I use Moom for window management since I got my first MBP in 2010. I've had the split screen for that long, too. #justsaying.

(Moom also "fixes" the green dot/stoplight issue, as well.)

 

[boskib]

Thanks for sharing the tip!

 

[BravoJustice]

I'm having that same problem...

 

[Bazza1]

Poorly realized, terribly non-intuitive (even for Apple) and must have been put together by the same team who gave us Apple Maps on iOS. They couldn't even be bothered to reverse-engineer (sorry...improve upon) the Windows version of this.

Disappointing.

 

[ROSES5682]

Thanks, I was going nutty over here trying to figure out how to set it up. I don't think the current process is very intuitive. :concern:

 

[joselo2k]

Split screen didn't work for me, I have a MacBook Pro 15 (Retina, mid 2012) and should work (seems it relies on Metal and models from 2012 should work).
So I have gfxCardStatus installed (lets you change the graphics card you want to use, because my MacBook Pro has both an integrated and discrete card), so I chose Discrete Only and boom! Split screen enabled.
Then I switched back to Dynamic Switching and Split screen is still enabled.
Hope someone finds this useful.

 

[rgstutz]

These are great instructions for getting to the error message "NO WINDOWS AVAILABLE"; HOWEVER, I WANT TO GET SPLIT SCREEN TO WORK.

 

[Bazza1]

...I rapidly gave up on El Capitan version of this - gained immediate (and more user-friendly) access to split screen - and other screen options - with a minor purchase in Mac Store of BetterSnapTool. Everything Apple's version should be...

Couldn't make sense of El Capitan's 'feature' or how to gracefully initiate it.

 

[iam_sama]

I really love, love, love split screen in El Cap! The question that I have is this: Is there a way to keep this feature on permanently?

 

[Mirsa Sanxhaku]

Hi. I have tried everything. Including unchecking the "displays have separate spaces" option, logging out, logging back in, checking it, logging out again and back in. It's still not working for me.. and I have waited for more than 10 seconds. Any idea?

 

[crocell]

Hi !

For those how have been wasting hours trying to make split screen work and have tried ALL ... Have you even tried to verify if Mission Control is enabled ?

Ahah, it was NOT on my MBP !!

Just download a soft like ONYX, got to "Applications" in the Param. tab, and you'll find an option to activate/deactivate MC ...

Enabling MC with terminal command line can be done with something like that, but please be aware that I'm not sure at all if this syntax is still good with Captain (it was on older OSX, type it without quotes ...) :

"defaults delete com.apple.dock mcx-expose-disabled && killall Dock"

Hope this helps