Dual monitors and fullscreen fiasco, is there a work around?

Guys,

While we wait for a fix for this, I sprung for this app: BetterSnapTool. It makes if really easy to get a full-screen-like-experience in lion. The only lame part is the menu stays on one screen so you need move your mouse a lot to use an app of the second monitor.

But it works really well for me.

CC

I have it on good authority that the behavior is the same in Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8)

Please use http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html to provide feedback to Apple.

If enough of us do this, Apple may take action

SmokeMonster posted that already a few pages back.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3196329?answerId=17012867022#17012867022

The problem is no one from Apple actually takes the requests seriously.

It's like trying to tell someone the sky is black...they'll say it's blue because they only look at it in the daytime ^_^

I'm sure they have someone who categorizes them and such and tries to bring them to someones attention, but in the end do they get considered when making design changes? Probably not.

The only time I actually got a response from someone at apple about a serious problem (ipad 2 light bleed display when they first came out) was when I sent a round of emails to the corporate management (tim cook, etc). -- someone called me back within a day from their "executive" support team, and actually did take my information and what my complaint was, etc.

In addition to posting about it in this thread you can also ask Apple to resolve the issue here:

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

I really think Apple are shooting themselves in the foot with this one - many people who use multiple displays are professional developers, designers, etc. It would seem sensible to listen to their needs rather than giving them reasons to switch OS.

As a developer myself I also can't believe that it would be *that* difficult or time-consuming to offer those of us who use multiple displays the full-screen we want!!

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. If you look at my diagram from way back, you'll see that people would like to be able to flick through fullscreen apps with gestures like everyone else can with one screen.

What they don't want to happen is the compensation of their other hardware (displays) because of it.

As it sits now, it functionally doesn't work well with multiple displays.

If you are looking for undestanding of why people might want to be able to use fullscreen apps and still have control of their other displays, simple read the history of this thread, it's all been said.

No one is forcing anyone to use FS apps.The real issue is that they never reallu updated Spaces (which I ignored successfully since there was no added function in having multiple spaces since they too moved all the applications when you switched to them.

With REAL control of multiple displays and fullscreen apps, the function, as it sits now, coupled with the idea that Mission Control works independently for each display (my idea) you could have virtually as many "Pads" as you do Displays, flicking through various ones and mixing and matching which ones you see on any given display.

I digress. You're opinion is noted but if you honestly want to know "why" someone would want this, then simply read this thread.

And for anyone who missed it the ten other times I posted it:

http://bugreport.apple.com

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

These are both ways to directly contact Apple about issues. Of course this would probably be better suited to file as feedback. Apple does care about it's customers. It is better to file feedback then it is to post about it here.

If you are pressed for time, choose to send feedback instead of posting here, the former benefits you more then the latter.

-MIB

You can still watch video full-screen with Lion without switching your "main desktop":

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

This is not a "bug" or fiasco.

"Fullscreen" is just not working the exact way certain people want it to.

That's a feature request. Tell Apple:

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

I just got a good laugh from your posts so I guess we're all a barrel of laughs here.

To anyone interested in improving OSX instead of cluttering it with third party, windows style, grid manipulation:

File Feedback:

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

-MIB

Apple considers this a feature, not a bug, so their support will be no help.

The only thing we can do is vent our frustrations using the submit feedback on Apple's website.

Also just an FYI, as of right now -- the spaces \ multi display behavior is the exact same in the next version of OS X so don't count on that fixing anything when it's finished.

There is only one option; submit feedback to apple and tell them they are wrong and this is not what users want out of their OS.

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

One can send these links through the Mac OS X feedback forum. I think this should be done by many, to enlight the team about this problem!

http://www.macworld.com.au/blogs/os-x-should-embrace-multiple-displays-45141/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3196329?tstart=0

Sincerely

Christoffer

<Email Edited by Host>

Hi all,

Have just sent the following on http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html. Like everyone else on this thread, I suspect, I've stopped hoping they will actually fix this, however. Over a year on, and not even an acknowledgement that this is a problem, we're obviously just using our Macs wrong...

When using an external display with my MacBook, full screen mode renders all but the primary display useless. This is most irritating when trying to watch movies (DVD or Quicktime) on my smaller MacBook display while continuing to work on my larger external display. It is not possible to achieve this in Lion using Apple software (while it was using previous versions of OS X, and remains to be using third party software which does not use Apple's broken fullscreen API).

The 2 scenarios where I find myself using full screen apps on my MacBook, when not connected to the external display, are for videos (for obvious reasons), and for applications such as Mail or Spotify which should remain open and easily accessible, while being out of the way. With one display both these usage scenarios are great, with the trackpad gestures leaving applications like Mail just a swipe away. However both video and out-of-the-way applications are broken with multiple monitors, where in both cases the logical design would be to have the primary monitor still available while having the full screen apps in view, or in easy reach on the secondary display. There is no logical sense whatsoever in having the grey linen texture blanking out all other available screens. As well as being a complete waste of screen space, it is also a complete waste of energy - these screens might as well be disconnected and turned off.

In OS X Lion, it seems that Apple has finally got around to implementing the full screen functionality that everyone so craved in Safari, functionality that has been present in other web browsers on all platforms since the advent of the GUI, but it has done so in such a way as to break functionality for all other Apple software. Instead of the over-engineered and inelegant integration of full screen with spaces, why didn't the Safari team simply add a decoration-less window mode to Safari, just like all other full screen Mac apps used to do, just like all other browsers for Mac still do, and just like full screen apps (HW-accelerated games excluded) on all other operating systems still do?

To make sure that I have set this totally in perspective, consider that flash video players on the web still work as expected, e.g. I can click the fullscreen button on YouTube and then continue working on a different display. You know there is a fundamental problem with your OS design, when a flash application embedded in a website provides better functionality that the native, bundled Apple applications! No wonder Apple hates Adobe so much, they're jealous!

This ins't the only curious 'feature' of Lion, either. I've been having some stability issues lately with my Mac, only to discover that it isn't possible to perform a Safe Boot with FileVault 2 enabled. The 'solution' (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4235) is to disable FV, wait for decryption, Safe Boot, then re-encrypt when you've finished... Crazy! That, along with the fact that all newly created user accounts, whether admin or not, strong passworded or not, are automatically able to unlock the FileVault, and the only way to fix this is to remove a user's password using the terminal, leads me to believe that FileVault 2, and much more of Lion with it, was rushed out without proper consideration and testing.

Although I love a good discussion like anyone else, this has started to repeat itself in the form of ideas. Some of you very heart felt people trying to make statements are saying almost the exact thing I said or other people said in the very beginning.

Since it's been a number of posts since I've last spammed this, please be sure to file feedback to apple about your specific enhancement requests here:

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

-MiB

TheSmokeMonster wrote:

Although I love a good discussion like anyone else, this has started to repeat itself in the form of ideas. Some of you very heart felt people trying to make statements are saying almost the exact thing I said or other people said in the very beginning.

Since it's been a number of posts since I've last spammed this, please be sure to file feedback to apple about your specific enhancement requests here:

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

-MiB

In the very beginning it was suggested that spaces could be unlinked on separate displays, but as I said above I don't believe this is a solution, as I don't believe that everyone who wants a functional full screen mode with multiple displays would be totally happy with separate spaces for separate displays. I know that I wouldn't.

It would be good, in my opinion, to work out between us what would be acceptable behaviour for us all. If nothing else, at least third-party developers would know what to focus on 😉

So, do we all agree that the current behaviour should be largely unchanged for when there is just one display?

And with multiple displays, assuming that spaces on displays won't be unlinked in general, what should be the behaviour when going full screen? Should the app stay linked to the current space, or should the space on the other display(s) change independently of it? Should any windows 'under' the full screen app be automatically displaced? Once I have a full screen app open on one display, what is the behaviour when I hit full screen on another app, on another screen?

EDIT: fixed typo

simoneisner wrote:

Sorry if this is a repeat but is there a reason nobody from Apple is paying attention to this thread?

Because this is an Apple users thread, no-one from Apple is here (officially anyway) if you want to address Apple directly, go here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

da bishop wrote:

Oh as for exposé... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3201688?start=0&tstart=0

Mate, the brilliance is that therein lay a link that eventually lead to TotalSpaces, which aims to offer a Snow Leopard-like Exposé/Spaces experience. Very interesting. Thanks for that!

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