How to Tile Two Windows

The issue

You're on the Turnitin website looking at your GradeMarked paper. It has marks you need to mouse-over so you can read all the excellent feedback provided by the instructor. At the same time, you wish to update your paper by incorporating these comments.

How can you quickly arrange these two windows on the screen so you can view both the GradeMarked paper and the paper you wish to correct?

The following writeup pertains to a Windows-based PC. Mac users will need to seek out their own solution. There may be no equivalent function on the Mac.

Windows 7 users: single monitor

(Watch Microsoft's 7-second Snap promotional video.) Drag a window to the left and touch the left edge with the mouse cursor—it snaps to fill the left half of the screen. Drag a second window to the right edge and it snaps to fill the right half. Job done!

(The XP/Vista Tiling method 1 shown below for tiling windows horizontally or vertically remains implemented in Windows 7.)

Windows 7 power users: multiple monitors

Open a window and position it somewhere in the middle of a screen on a system with more than one monitor. Now, press the Windows key (shown below) plus the right-arrow key. Do it again, repeatedly. Do it with the left-arrow key repeatedly.

Windows key

Watch the window dock on the edge of the screen, then move to the next screen, docking on it, then to the center of the next screen, etc. The movement is circular, through all of your screens. This is useful for juxtaposing two half-screen windows in a multi-monitor system. See this and other shortcuts illustrated in this video.

Windows XP and Vista users

Examples of tiled windows follow.


Windows Tiled Horizontally or Stacked		Windows Tiled Vertically or Side by Side

Tiling method 1 (preferred)

Click on the taskbar tab that corresponds to the first window you wish to tile.
Then, while holding the Ctrl key down, right-click on the tab that corresponds to the second window you wish to tile. The menu shown immediately below will appear.
Select one of the two Tile commands (XP) or Show Windows commands (Vista).


Windows XP Menu		Windows Vista Menu

Tiling method 2

Point to any empty area on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen and right-click. The menu shown below will appear.
Select one of the Tile Windows commands (XP) or Show Windows commands (Vista).
Later, repeat and select the Undo command to restore the windows to their previous state.

Note: When you take this action, all non-minimized open windows will be tiled. Therefore, to exclude a window from the tiling, minimize it first—this requires extra effort and is why method 1 is preferred.


Windows XP Menu		Windows Vista Menu

Prof. Mary Riggs

California State University Northridge