MBP 17" Browser Window Question

When I go into 'safari' and websurf, why is the browser window so dam small compared to pc notebooks? I've tried all of the options, and when I use the 'ctrl+mouse scroll' zoom it does make the window but not as clean. And it not only makes the window bigger - it makes eVerything bigger....now that I"ve never seen before, but it still doesn't really help. On a pc notebook, the browser window will fill the whole screen, if you choose, and at the original resolution. Am I missing something? I'm new to macs as I've said in another thread.

 

Try clicking on the green button at the top left corner of the window. If it is the font size of the websites that are appearing too small, click on View and select Make Text Bigger.

 

You can always just resize the window manually to your preferred size.

Once you do that, Safari or Firefox should also remember that window size when you maximize a window later.

This seems to be one of the big things that bugs people moving from Windows to OS X, that OS X doesn't generally maximize windows to fill the entire screen.

Personally it doesn't bother me too much. On Windows, I almost never use maximize, and I personally find it annoying when I do accidentally maximize a window..... on my desktop computer I have a 20" monitor at a 1680x1050 resolution, and I've never been able to see a point in web browsing with the browser taking up that entire amount of space.

-Zadillo

 

Every browser does that. It's called scaling. Most web devs use % for their divs and such, so they will scale to fit the browser window. There is no difference between the way Firefox handles pages on OS X and Windows or Linux.

When you increase or decrease your browser size, the page should scale if the developer knows what they are doing.
One reason OS X doesn't default to full screen, is because designers generally program pages for 1024x768 or 1280x1024 (the prior seeming to be more common). Well, to maximize your customer base, you would use 1024, but still, you don't need the pages maximized, it's just ends up wasting space IMHO.

 

Well I don't need the whole screen covered by a webpage, but at least more than a sliver so I don't have to side scroll. I tried the green button; it only makes the window longer not wider. How do I manually enlarge the window because I tried doing it with the mouse and no dice.

 

Grab the lower right corner of the window and you can resize it however you like.

-Zadillo

 

The green button is supposed to make the window the size the developer intended. Although, some developers don't intend a specific size. Just drag the lower right corner like zadillo recommended. On a side note, I used to be a fullscreen type, then I started using OS X. I cannot stand fullscreen windows anymore. They waste so much space.