Hmmm...  Sorry, I don't know. my screenshot shows the solution (I can give) that comes most near your wish. It has the palette docked and managed the opened files via the described icons as standard mode (cause with two files opened the fullscreen doesn't function, as you noticed already) and '2 next to each other'. But there's still some space where you can see the programs running in background (Renderosity in Safari and the finder on the right). About the possibility to resize it, I don't have a suggestion.