Lion Mail full screen composing problem

I've found a slightly nicer workaround (for my purposes anyway), and that is to use the multitouch controls (this only works if you have a laptop or magicpad).

Start to swipe as though you are changing spaces. Just place three fingers (or with my settings, four) on the pad and drag slightly to the left a few pixels without letting up; just enough that you are part way between spaces. While you are doing that, press command+N to get a new *non-modal* compose message window.

It's annoying, but it's easier than dropping out of full screen, creating a new compose window and then going back to full screen...

- Mike

Just adding my support for a bit more flexibility in fullscreen mail.

mike.greiling - thanks for the quirky workaround - absolutely right it's easier than switching in and out of full screen.

Just FYI and to add a little excitement to the thread, I use dual monitors, my 17" MBP and an external monitor.

In full screen mail, the lower monitor is useless. I thought I could drag the compose window down to the 2nd monitor and I was prepared for nirvana, but no.

I can almost accept the design discussions above, but not leaving a whole monitor useless in full screen mode.

Either the compose window needs to be non-modal, or mail needs to figure out how to use the 2nd monitor screen in full screen mode.

I don't care how a smaller and more limited platform works, I'm not using that platform, I'm using a more powerful platform that I expect to be fully exploited.

Mail on OS X needs to be more flexible than Mail on iOS, not limited by its constraints.

You're all right! Even the guy that keeps saying "its your choice"! 🙂

The full screen thing is great, the modal compose window is bad.

Here's what I do: Use Mail in full screen mode which works as it is "most of the time" and when I want to start an email which will have references or other text from emails in it, I just switch to another desktop then right click on the Mail icon in the dock and choose Compose New Message from the pop-up menu. This makes a new message window outside of the full screen so you can switch to the other desktop and back with a swipe.

It's not perfect but it works!

You can always just make a new desktop in Mission Control and then put your Mail window maximised in there.

Tip: If you click on the app Icon in the dock you can assign the app to always appear in a specific desktop when it starts - look under options in the dock icon menu.

Hope this helps....

tonefox wrote:

Then you don't set Mail to full screen mode! Nobody is forcing it on you.

And no one is forcing us to buy Apple either. You don't advertise a mango and give a lemon.

It took you five months to come up with that reply?

tonefox wrote:

It took you five months to come up with that reply?

No, it took me about a minute.

Your response contributes nothing to the discussion. It's a flame.

It took Apple 5 months not to fix any of the Full-Screen glitches.... Mail, Safari, iPhoto, Image Capture... and many others. System updates aren't fixing the problems.

Yes, even if this modal compose window is not a glitch, there are many other issues using Apple Apps in Full-Screen mode that haven't been addressed.

What happens when you open image capture while iphoto is open? My new MB Pro with Apple's most up-to-date OS makes a huge mess of it...

Apple seems far more concerned these days with selling shiny little silly gadgets than it does with computing. But in my fifteen years of being a Mac OS user (survivor of 8 and 9 and early adopter of OSX BETA) I have never seen this company give us something this half baked and sloppy.

The idea of porting iOS to the OSX GUI is pleasant and makes sense. But if you are going to do it, do it right. This is a company that say what you will under Steve Jobs did things right. Now I can't really see what separates Apple from other corporations that mainly just want profits.

It isn't hard to port iPad touch technology to the OS. But the Apple team didn't bother to integrate it into the OS' functionality hardly at all and most of us veteran end-users are simply saying to Apple, 'huh?'

Doesn't forebode well does it?

bluetortilla wrote:

Apple seems far more concerned these days with selling shiny little silly gadgets than it does with computing.

What do you expect? Most of Apple's profits come from selling those shiny little gadgets and the software & ecosystem that go with them.

That Apple appears to have a unification plan is good, because it means that the desktop OS won't be allowed to whither from benevolent neglect. That the unification plan is a bit half-assed at this time is not so good.

As for "...Steve Jobs did things right," Jobs didn't check out until two months after Lion shipped.

Yeah, it's been 5 months and the problems are still there. That's disappointing and very unApple-like. But my first Apple was a ][+. Having lived through the Sculley years, the wretched Performa, the clones, yadda, yadda, I'm not yet ready to get huffed over this.

i cant even compose in full screen, when i click the icon for compose new message nothing happens?

anyone knoe why.

david

Hello David,

I would click the new message icon and then check all your other spaces, just in case the compose window is popping up in one of those instead.

Does it work if you don't use full screen?

What do you expect? Most of Apple's profits come from selling those shiny little gadgets and the software & ecosystem that go with them.

Then it will slowly but surely turn into a silly littel gadget company in competition with Sony. It already is and I believe Jobs once said he wanted Apple to be the 'Sony of Computing.'

That Apple appears to have a unification plan is good, because it means that the desktop OS won't be allowed to whither from benevolent neglect. That the unification plan is a bit half-assed at this time is not so good.

Don't agree- Apple is turning into something else. What percent of Apple product owners are Savvy end users these days? I could jump to Ubuntu in a flash as far the OS goes. But I like Apple. I was the first in line to buy the first iMac, and I was a very early adopter of OS X running beta as my main system. I also know the horrors of the Performa (I owned one) and etc.'s crash crash crash.

As for "...Steve Jobs did things right," Jobs didn't check out until two months after Lion shipped.

I have great respect of Steve Jobs. Maybe you're right and he was involved until the very end. But had he been healthy, he would have made sure a better Lion was released I believe. I for one would like to think bigger things were on his mind during his last days.

a_mac,

thanks for replying.

i did as you suggested and checked every window and it is not there.

when it is not in full screen it works perfect.

wow…you can see some people with such an attitude here. I agree with Bluetortilla, if your response does not bring any contribution to the discussion then don't bother writing.

Well, it terms of the subject, it's true it has to be a bug, if you want to use full screen in Mail then you should also be able to navigate trough the other emails in your inbox, weather in a separate desktop like in mission control or having a smaller window for the email you are composing but having access to the other emails. Of course, some of you would say "they don't push you to use it in fullscreen" but to be honest I see that answer as they don't have the correct answer.

In my case, I love my mac, I love Lion, I love fullscreen apps, but I need to navigate back and forth when composing or replying. So I came up with this: You can be weather in fullscreen or standard, then you click new mail, or reply/forward an existing one and once the new window with the email comes up you can go fullscreen in the main window from Mail, or if you are already in fullscreen you have to go standard and go back to fullscreen. That way you'll be on a fullscreen Mail with a new email, reply or forward window in a different desktop. I know it sounds complicated and boring to do it every time you need it, but at least it works and you can use multiple screens with Mail in fullscreen, which at the end is what I was looking for.

Let's see if Mountain Lion fix this bug, even when some of you would still say it's not…

Best,

HH