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If you’ve ever been using your Mac with a lot of windows open, you may have found that you can run out of screen real-estate pretty fast! This is particularly true on Apple laptops with smaller screens. Buying a new secondary display is always an option, but it can be expensive and cumbersome, not to mention stationary!

If you own both an iPad and a Mac, you can us your iPad as a secondary display for your computer using nothing but the built-in software of macOS and iPad OS. No special software or hardware needed! You can bring this set up with you to the office, or the coffee shop and have a multi display setup on the go.

If you’re using macOS Big Sur, click the display menu in control center on the menu bar, then choose your iPad from the menu. If you’re using macOS Catalina, click the AirPlay icon in the menu bar, then choose your iPad from the menu. You can also connect using the menu in System Preferences under “Sidecar”.

By default, your iPad acts as an extension of your Mac desktop. You can move windows to it and use it just like any other display. To mirror your Mac display so that both screens show the same content, return to the display section of control center which displays a blue iPad icon while using Sidecar. Choose the option to mirror your display.

You can also move a dedicated app window, like email or calendar to the sidecar display. If you hover your pointer over the green full-screen button of a window, you can choose to move that window to or from your iPad display. It's faster than dragging the window and the window will be resized perfectly for your display.

This is a great way to get more space out of your Mac’s screen, and take advantage of your iPad when it not being used.