Anyone grasped dual monitors with Lion yet?

No moaning here mate!

And no reason to moan to either, as i myself have not really had a problem so far dealing with what appears to be a definite issue regarding dual screens in Lion...

However, after reading the myriad of "moans" from the other users, i figured i'd register myself here and write a a few words that could possibly be useful and perhaps help somebody out.

I do appreciate your tip on the new VLC v2 options and i will be sure to go back and revise that.

I will also be sure to carefully revise any possible posts i may decide to make in the future.

Regardless, imagine an actual mediator/rep from Apple that would actually read and even possibly address the concerns of us loyal masses. Whether any great magic were to come of it in the end, at least a "yeah, we're on it" would be just grand!! (Maybe they are in fact here in abundance and i just need to revise that too)

Now THAT Richard, you can definitely call a 'moan' 😉

I have submitted this issue to Apple and suggested that all they need to do is enable the use of full screen apps so that if the cursor is on screen one then when you swipe to switch between full screen apps only the current display changes. Then to change what is on another display put the cursor on that one and swipe. Then you can easily have mirroring or different apps just by swiping.

OS X Lion: Full-screen apps appear on the display containing the menu bar

I am not sure how you enable swipe to only effect the screen you are on?

Do you mean effect only the monitor you are on?

How can you have it so that a space is only a single monitor?

If i have two monitors and I use safari in full screen my second screen becomes a peice of cloth, and I cant use it at all.

Just a thought/question... Have you considered just not using Lion's "fullscreen" with an app? Wouldn't that be like is was with SL in terms of external displays? Just drag to position and maximize the window and re-size as you wish?

It seems to me that Apple did not take away or "break" any feature so much as added one and it's just not working in the exact way that people want it to. I think they designed fullscreen with MacBooks in mind where screen real estate is precious. I do know that in Mountain Lion, you can choose which monitor you want the fullscreen app to open on which is different from Lion, but it still keeps the other monitor as part of that same app. For example, if you open iPhoto and take it fullscreen, you can have the photo browser on one monitor and editing HUD, toolbars, etc. on the other.

In terms of watching video full screen with Lion...

With Quicktime, just drag video window to the monitor you'd like to use and choose View -> Fit to Screen

With VLC (2.0):

1) VLC -> Preferences... Interface > uncheck "Use native fullscreen on OS X Lion"

2) Video > uncheck "Black screens in Fullscreen"

3) Fullscreen Video Device = choose which monitor you want to use

4) SAVE, exit and then re-launch VLC

Every time something changes – especially big changes like a whole OS – and I don't particularly like a feature or wish it were different, I have to remind myself that Apple is not forcing me to buy their products. It is a choice and if I don't like it, I can send them feedback (which they are not forced to listen too), not upgrade or use something else. I certainly don't take it personally or think that "Apple doesn't care about it's users". It seems to me the opposite is true.

And if you disagree with me, okay, but please don't be mean! Life's too short. It's just a computer.

getbarrett wrote:

Just a thought/question... Have you considered just not using Lion's "fullscreen" with an app? Wouldn't that be like is was with SL in terms of external displays? Just drag to position and maximize the window and re-size as you wish?

<snip>

And if you disagree with me, okay, but please don't be mean! Life's too short. It's just a computer.

The issue is that apps such as Aperture (by Apple) have a full-screen implementation which works just fine under Snow Leopard, but under Lion, they use the Lion full screen functionality, filling the second and third etc monitors with a gray linen pattern.

Maximizing a window is not the same as full-screen. Full-screen in Aperture shows no window components, no menus, noyhing but the image(s). Under SL you can use the the other monitor(s) for other applications (such as the Apple Aperture Training in the Kindle app or iBooks). Under Lion, the other monitor(s) can't be used simultaneously by any other app.

I finally just figured out how to run Netflix on my second monitor in full screen mode while working on the main monitor.

I downloaded Firefox and run netflix on Firefox in full screen mode and it stays on the second monitor. Every time I tried to run Safari in full screen mode on the second monitor, it would go back to full screen on the main computer. I then use Safari on the main computer for browsing while Firefox is running on the second monitor.

RMason wrote:

I finally just figured out how to run Netflix on my second monitor in full screen mode while working on the main monitor.

I downloaded Firefox and run netflix on Firefox in full screen mode and it stays on the second monitor. Every time I tried to run Safari in full screen mode on the second monitor, it would go back to full screen on the main computer. I then use Safari on the main computer for browsing while Firefox is running on the second monitor.

RMason, thanks for posting this.

I'm curious. If you shrink each application down to less than full screen (or turn f/s off - I don't have access to Lion yet), can you swap which screen they are on by simply dragging them across from one screen to the other - then restore both to full screen mode and carry on regardless?

P.S. Never mind. I have just answered my own question by reading John Kitchen's post. I should have read that first.

Message was edited by: El Deanio - by adding P.S. because I can't work out how to delete my post

Here is a form to let Apple know how disgruntled its consumers are with this lack of functionality:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Please fill Apple's inboxes with requests to get this fixed.

Anyone care to wager that this functionality will mysteriously reappear in some later version of MacOS along with some sort of fanfare/marketing push announcing it as something entirely splendid and new?

So Mountain Lion fixes it:

Go full screen on any display: If you have a secondary display connected to your Mac, you can take an app full screen on either display. Drag the window to the desired display and click the full-screen button.

That's good news achitnis - if it turns out to be true. As Mountain Lion hasn't been released yet, I suppose it still remains to be seen.

If you are correct, it makes my speculative post last month quite prescient. I wonder if this will appear in ML promotional material? If it does, I for one will find it quite scary.

achitnis wrote:

So Mountain Lion fixes it:

Go full screen on any display: If you have a secondary display connected to your Mac, you can take an app full screen on either display. Drag the window to the desired display and click the full-screen button.

Have you actually *tried* it? That's only half the problem..

What we need to know is that it allows an app to go full screen on any display without affecting the other displays at all, so that one can continue using other apps in parallel as required.

Full screen should mean ONE full screen, not only one screen out of 'n' 🙂

Many of you will think I was still sleeping; yet, somehow this morning, I got Safari to do dual full-screen with different windows. In others words, what this year-long chat has been discussing, making use of the second monitor in full-screen (Lion's native) with Safari (and the like). In my disbelief I double-checked. I even had the luxury of dragging tabs from the main full screen window to the secondary monitor's window.

Worked like we hope.

I thought I simply had my mouse in the second display (no menu bar) and opened a new window; however, I have not been able to duplicate. I consequently tried to use different key strokes to no avail. I re-read threads and no one appears to have figure something similar. Of course, a simple thing like New Window with mouse in the second display didn't work and I'm sure many have tried over and over in various manners, too. Yet...there it was, working like a charm this morning.

Anyone else ever get "lucky" and have Safari do this (even if in error)?

symonty Gresham wrote:

I am not sure how you enable swipe to only effect the screen you are on?

Do you mean effect only the monitor you are on?

How can you have it so that a space is only a single monitor?

If i have two monitors and I use safari in full screen my second screen becomes a peice of cloth, and I cant use it at all.

I think you mean "affect".