Rectangle · macOS Window Management
How to Resize Windows on Mac with Your Keyboard Only
Rectangle assigns a shortcut to every window size: thirds, fourths, sixths, and step-by-step Larger/Smaller keys. Press the same shortcut twice and Rectangle cycles to the next size in that direction — no mouse required at any point.
Quick answer: Install the free Rectangle and use Ctrl+Opt+←/→/↑/↓ for halves, Ctrl+Opt+D/F/G for thirds. Press the same directional shortcut twice in a row and Rectangle cycles the window to the next size — half → third → two-thirds → half. For fine-tuning, Ctrl+Opt+= grows the window and Ctrl+Opt+- shrinks it incrementally.
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Why keyboard-only resizing is worth learning
Dragging a window edge with a mouse is fine for a one-off resize. It’s a bad habit for anything you do dozens of times a day. Every drag means moving your hand off the keyboard, finding the one-pixel-wide resize handle, and dragging carefully enough not to overshoot. Multiply that by the number of times you rearrange windows in a workday and it adds up to real friction.
Rectangle for Mac replaces all of that with shortcuts that resize windows to exact, predictable fractions of the screen: halves, thirds, fourths, sixths. No handle-hunting, no overshoot, no mouse. Once the combinations are in muscle memory, resizing a window takes less time than reaching for the trackpad.
Thirds and sixths shortcuts
Beyond basic halves and quarters, Rectangle includes finer divisions for wider displays — the ones that make a 27-inch or ultrawide monitor genuinely useful for more than two windows at once.
| Size | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| First third (left) | Ctrl+Opt+D |
| Center third | Ctrl+Opt+F |
| Last third (right) | Ctrl+Opt+G |
| First two thirds | Ctrl+Opt+E |
| Last two thirds | Ctrl+Opt+T |
Sixths don’t have their own dedicated shortcut in the free version — you get there by combining a top/bottom half shortcut with a third shortcut, which Rectangle chains automatically when pressed in sequence. Four windows across a wide monitor, each at a sixth or a quarter, is entirely achievable without the trackpad once you know these combinations.
Cycling through sizes with one repeated key
This is the feature most people miss entirely. Press Ctrl+Opt+← once and a window snaps to the left half. Press the exact same shortcut again immediately and Rectangle cycles it to the left third. A third press moves it to left two-thirds. The same key combination cycles through all relevant sizes each time you repeat it.
The cycle only continues if you press the shortcut again quickly — wait too long and Rectangle treats the next press as a fresh action. If a window ever lands somewhere unexpected, Ctrl+Opt+Delete restores its previous size and position in one press.
Larger and Smaller: step resizing
Fixed fractions cover most cases, but sometimes you want a window a bit bigger or smaller than the nearest preset — not quite a half, not quite a third. Rectangle’s Larger and Smaller shortcuts nudge the active window’s size incrementally, keeping its current position anchored.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Larger | Ctrl+Opt+= |
| Smaller | Ctrl+Opt+- |
| Restore previous size | Ctrl+Opt+Delete |
Hold either shortcut and repeat it to keep stepping in that direction. Most useful when a terminal window needs to be just wide enough to stop a long log line from wrapping, without dedicating a full third of the screen to it.
Pairing Rectangle with Superkey
For a fully keyboard-driven setup, Rectangle pairs naturally with Superkey, a companion app that adds app-launching and window-focusing shortcuts. Superkey handles jumping between open apps and windows; Rectangle handles what happens to a window once you’re on it. Together they cover both halves of a keyboard-only workflow, without needing a heavier tiling window manager like yabai.
Frequently asked questions
