Cinch Makes Window Resizing A Cinch

Cinch in action - note the visual feedback as a dotted outline of where the window will be moved to

One of the features I loved from the first moment I saw it in Windows 7 was Snap, the one that lets you instantly resize any document window by dragging it to one side of your screen.

Irradiated Software makes a Mac utility that does a similar job. It’s called Sizeup, and I find it pretty useful. But it’s keyboard-controlled, not mouse-controlled, and you have to remember some new shortcuts to get the most from it. How about a mouse-controlled alternative?

Enter Cinch, a new app from the Sizeup developers.

It’s nice and simple and does exactly the same job as Windows 7’s Snap feature. Drag to one side, and your window gets tiled – with helpful visual feedback showing you where it will go. Drag the window again, and it reverts back to its former size and position.

You can maximise a window just as easily by dragging to the top of your display. Here’s a quick screencast to show how it works:

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Having tried both apps, I think I like Cinch more, mainly because I’ve always struggled to remember the correct shortcuts to use in Sizeup. Cinch is particularly useful for throwing a couple of Finder windows into place before doing a bunch of file moves. If you already have Sizeup, though, you might not want to spend a few dollars on Cinch as it replicates a lot of functionality; Sizeup can do everything Cinch can, and more, but just doesn’t do it via mouse commands.

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