Resizing an Off-Screen iTunes Window

I’ve been using my MacBook full-time, either connected to the my 24" Apple LED Cinema Display or untethered on the couch or wherever. There’s one little annoyance that I had discovered, and since remedied. I figured I’d share it here.

When I work from my desk on the Cinema Display, some windows will be expanded to sizes that end up overflowing the smaller built-in display when I unplug. I’ll usually have a few Finder windows that are either completely or partially off-screen. (Shouldn’t they always be automatically resized for the new screen-space?) No trouble. You just hit the Zoom/Resize button on the top left corner of whichever window. However, if the iTunes window is overflowing the screen and you can’t reach the drag-resize corner on the bottom right, the Resize button collapses the iTunes window to the small "Player" display. I never even use this mode since Apple has incorporated basic iTunes controls in the function keys on the keyboard.

I Googled my dilemma a while back and didn’t find a solution, but I finally got the keywords right today. I found this blog thread where people were discussing a bunch of AppleScripts and plug-ins to manage Finder windows. I began to get a little disheartened with Apple for creating such an annoying bug that seemed so simple to squash with a little foresight and QA. But my faith in their UI practices kept me going.

“ijeff” says in post #11 that all you do is Option-Click the Resize button and the window will be refitted within the screen dimensions. You can also choose Windows > Zoom from the top menu, adds “Greg” in post #12.

Apple software is typically intuitive once you know a few basic key functions. This one was a mindbender for me and apparently other long-time Mac users. Gotta remember the hidden power of the Option/Alt key.