How to Use Split Screen on Surface Pro

Every Windows device has the split-screen option, including the Surface Pro. You don’t need a third-party application to split your screen on Windows operating systems. Actually, the Split Screen feature on Windows 10 is very robust and easy to use.

Forget about alt-tabbing and splitting your screen manually, that takes way too much time and effort. You can do it much easier, and this article will show you how. Specifically, on Surface Pro, you can split your screen with either your mouse or your fingers.

You will be able to manage multiple programs on your screen at the same time.

The Wrong Way

Many people have the same issue when using a Surface Pro, or any other computer running the Windows 10 operating system. They don’t know how to split the screen efficiently.

There is a multitude of reasons why you would have multiple tabs running at the same time. You might need both Word and Excel open for comparing charts and tables. Perhaps you also want to play music, listen to a podcast or check email in your browser.

We live in an age of multitasking and one tab is never enough, which is why you might need to split your screen. Pressing Alt and Tab keys together to change between tasks is one of the first things you learn in an IT class.

However, doing that consumes a lot of time, especially if you have several apps running at the same time. Manually resizing windows to fit the screen is also a nightmare. You might miss and expand the window to your entire screen, having to do it all over again.

Forget about everything you learned so far, this is how to properly split your screen on a Surface Pro.

The Right Way

Here is a little tutorial on splitting the screen in two on a Surface Pro which can make your life a little bit easier. Follow these steps for maximum multitasking efficiency:

1. On Surface Pro, open multiple applications or tabs. It doesn’t matter which apps or programs you choose.
2. You can use your mouse, finger, or pen to grab the center top bar of one application, also called the Title Bar.
3. Drag from the Title Bar all the way to the left edge of your screen.
4. Let your finger, mouse, or pen go and the application you were holding will fill the left half of the screen.
5. On the other side of the screen, you will see the task view. From that view, you will see the other applications open at the time. Click or tap on one of the applications and it will fill the right half of the screen.

Split the Screen Multiple Times on Surface Pro

You can split the screen more than twice using a Surface Pro.  You can split it into quadrants, or maybe have two apps on the left side, and one app on the right side of the screen. Here is how to split the screen even further.

Drag an application with your finger, pen, or mouse cursor from the title bar to the top-right corner of the screen. The application will fit in one quadrant of the screen. You can repeat step 1 from the previous section four times until you fill all four quadrants. That is four apps running at the same time, split into four perfectly equal windows.

Split the Screen in Tablet Mode

Splitting screens in tablet mode is slightly different, and here is how you can do it.

Switch your Surface Pro to Tablet mode (click on the bottom-right corner of your screen to access Action Center, and click on Tablet mode). Swipe in from the left edge of the screen to bring up the task view.

In the Task View window, take the application you want to split the screen with, and drag it to the right side of the screen. This will automatically split the screen in half, with that app in the right half.

On the left part of the screen, you will still see Task View which shows you any apps that are still running. If you tap on any of the apps, it will fill out the left half of the screen.

Tablet mode splits the screen right down the middle of the screen. You can tap on this line and drag it to the left, or to the right, to expand one app and shrink the other.

When you scroll one app entirely to the left or right, it will disappear and the other app will take up the whole screen.

Additional Split Screen Tips

At any time, you can drag the Title Bar of an app to the top of the screen, and it will expand the app across the entire screen.

There is a keyboard shortcut for splitting the screen on Windows 10. You need to press the Windows key and the left or right arrow keys.  That will snap the application you currently have open on your screen to the left or the right half of the screen.

This shortcut is very useful for multiple monitor setups attached to your Surface Pro via the surface docking station.

Split the Surface

Splitting the screen on the Surface Pro is much easier now isn’t it? These steps and shortcuts also apply to other devices running Windows 10. Splitting the screen is actually very intuitive and easy, but there aren’t any pointers on Windows to show you the way.

How do you multi-task? Do you split your screen or use the good old Alt + Tab shortcut?  Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments.