Is there any keyboard shortcut for entering El Capitan’s split view?

El Capitan’s new split view is an interesting feature. At last, OS X users have a feature at their disposal that has long been available on various Linuxes or on Windows. However, I have not yet found any way to enter it with the keyboard alone, without any mouse or trackpad interaction.

Yes, I am a keyboard junky and I think the ⊞ Win + ← or → keyboard shortcuts that are available on Windows or on many Linuxes are very handy. I would appreciate anything similar – a setting, a menu entry, or even an extra app or script.

The BetterTouchTool allows for setting keyboad shortcuts for Maximize Window Left and Maximize Window Right. However, that is not quite the same, since it does not make use of the proper split view.

So, is there a way to enter the split view with a keyboard shortcut?

Solution 1:

BetterTouchTool (starting with version 1.22, currently available as alpha version) let's you assign gestures or keyboard shortcuts to trigger the native split screen.

Solution 2:

There doesn't seem to be any way to achieve this. I've trawled the web in search of an answer.

When I first moved to Mac from Linux, I picked SizeUp for this kind of window manipulation. It's the best tool I could find that has a full range of keyboard shortcuts. I'll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. (It costs $12.99 but the free trial version doesn't expire)

Solution 3:

You may also consider Spectacle, which explicitly apes the winkey+arrow behavior from Windows 7/8/10.

Solution 4:

I've used BetterTouchTool which has now branched into BetterTouchTool and BetterSnapTool to resize windows using programmable multitouch gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

Link to BetterSnapTool in the app store: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12