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

Ronald,

I think everyone understands how to maximize their application window. what a lot of people would like, is to actually be able to use Spaces/Mission Control with gestures and fullscreen apps, giving them a worth while experience with this new feature.

As it sits now, one would have to just completely ignore and not use fullscreen apps to be able to functionally use there second monitor. Or they would have to ignore their other monitors, if they wanted to use fullscreen apps. That just doesn't sit well. This shouldn't be a choice one has to make.

As for Hardware compatibility, Mission control/Spaces/Fullscreen apps gets a fat 0. With the idea that someone, who was over zealous, purchased, a new macbook pro with Thunderbolt, and then bought two Apple branded thunderbolt displays, and daisy chained them together (just like the ads show on Apple.com), then they went and bought Lion or ML to go with their fancy new hardware, only to realize, that two out of their three displays will only show content when utilizing a big feature of the OS, (fullscreen apps and Mission Control).

There is a loss of functionality for some people. Either with hardware, or with the function of Fullscreen Apps.

It should be more intuitive then it is now, especially with TB displays being hardware apple supposedly would like to sell.

-P

Hallo - thanks for explanation on the requirements and reason of frustration.

In regards Mission Control and Spaces , as said before, I am using daily a second monitor on MBP, not Thunderbolt display, just a cheap large monitor.

I have in total 8 spaces - independant on both screens. The content on both screens is different - I just use the same background to know where I am :-)

I use the same style when I make presentations, the projector is then the secondary and shows presentation, the primary is my view with comments etc.

I agree, it is application depending what they do with additionally screens. For MS Word , in the secondary display with Full Screen, the primary goes gray.

To be honest, I do not use that Full Screen function too often - 90% I am using the Maximize, because the screen goes gray.

The other thing - I never understood it as one of the BIG features of Lion or ML, maybe my reason, why I do not struggle :-) I see it together as one option of how to handle that, usually Maximize, exceptional Full Screen.

Ronald

Full screen video's been covered many times here. In essence, avoid the Apple applications and use VLC.

The problem is using all the other applications. For example connect a projector to your MacBook to demo to customers/managers; drag a Finder window over to the projector, press space to preview it, then maximise the window and *blatt* you look like a complete fool as the projector goes blank and the preview shows on your laptop.

It's the most perverse implementation out of the depths of Infinite Loop for years. Nearly as daft as the faux-leather 1980's look on iCal & Addresses.

It's even worse if you're running other applications in full screen where you CANNOT use other applications in that Space; so no grabbing (partial) screenshots or measuring colour...

But for the "I use my Mac to watch videos or play games" crowd, it's fine.

However, for the "I use my Mac for work" mob, it's hopeless (and embarrasing, dumb, perverse, counter-intuative... etc.).

ronaldfromdresden wrote:

I have in total 8 spaces - independant on both screens. The content on both screens is different - I just use the same background to know where I am :-)

Really? How did you manage this? Because a big part of the issue as I see it is not in the ability/inability to use the full-screen option. It's that both screens necessarily show the same Space. I can't throw up a presentation on one screen and continue to work in varying spaces on the other. Instead, if I switch Spaces, it does so for both screens. OSX treats both monitors as using one, big, space.

I believe "total spaces" is the only way to accomplish such a thing - but having never used it I'm not 100% sure.

Having spaces be independent on each monitor is NOT possible otherwise -- heck, that is basically part of the solution to fix the issue all of us are complaining about.

What I don't understand is why two physically separate spaces in the "real world" are considered one big space in the virtual world.

This to me makes absolutely no sense.

Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to drag windows from one space(or physical monitor) to another (you could always do this even back to 10.5) -- you drag the window over to the side and it automatically puts it in a new space. It should treat multiple monitors in this same fashion -- each monitor is a "space" and they have their own seperate "sub-spaces" (ie. the things you see in mission control).

Hallo RevChris - In System Preferences - Monitor - Arrangement (might be different because I have german version). I use the separate aarrangement and told, the monitor is located at left side.

Need to test, but when I correct remember, the bigger screen can be arranged as primary (with dock and so on ), but I will update tomorrow

Glennies response is different thing, because I would never let a customer see my Finder, even the structure and so i do not have that experience he had.

I arrange my desks and application in that way, that customers only see what they should see

Then, an application in Full Screen is added as a separate desktop. The other applications on the screen are still there.

all other polemic expressions - no need to answer. And yes, if an application is on the second screen, then it should be FullSize on that screen.

Ronald

ronaldfromdresden wrote:

Hallo RevChris - In System Preferences - Monitor - Arrangement (might be different because I have german version). I use the separate aarrangement and told, the monitor is located at left side.

Need to test, but when I correct remember, the bigger screen can be arranged as primary (with dock and so on ), but I will update tomorrow

Ronald,

I see where the difference comes in - you aren't actually using more than one Space. You've set your system up so that the desktop is extended across both monitors, and you've dragged one application to one screen and kept the others on your primary monitor. That's how Apple designed the system, but it's too limited for most of us.

Your setup works great for what you are doing - showing one monitor to a customer for a brief time while you do work in a different application. But let's say you have a more extended session with a customer and need to be a bit more productive. Ideally, you'd keep the same application up on the screen visible to the customer while you switch between various Spaces to maximize your effecifiency. Unfortunately, you can't do this. As soon as you switch to a new Space, your customer's monitor switches to that Space as well, and they lose the view of the application they're supposed to be looking at.

This is why I said the issue is much larger than simply watching a video in full-screen mode. It extends to business applications in a variety of situations.

It seems clear that people have a variety of feature requests. The thread is getting a bit muddy.

#1: The most simple of these being a non-wasteful version of the fullscreen system for fullscreening applications.

#2: Another being a number of more sophisticated approaches to multi-monitor applications, related to spaces, one of which is a presentation system which is integrated with the Dock/Finder/MacOS UI. Were the full-screen mode to be implemented in a more flexible and sophisticated way, this could potentially deliver this second set of features.

There's certainly a current argument for somebody developing a 3rd party window management helper application, allowing for these various features.

I think I have a workaround. At least it is working for me.

Go to System Preferences --> Keyboard

Click on the tab that says Keyboard shortcuts

Click on the + button

Menu Title should be Zoom

Keyboard shortcut should be command + shift + M

Click Add

Close out the window

Close out your application and restart, go to a website and hit the command + shift +m

This allows me to view my second monitor in full screen mode and allows my laptop to be on the desktop screen. I can make both screens full screen too and when I want to go back to the normal size screen, I just hit command + shift + m again.

hope this helps!

wesbos wrote:

this is something that worked fine in 10.6 and is now broken in 10.7 and 10.8, unacceptable.

I don't think spaces worked very well with dual monitors in 10.6, forcing you to switch all monitors at once.

Spaces wasn't made for power users, it was made to hide games from the boss or parents, as it doesn't aid in anyone's workflow to have different spaces unless those workflows are completely different (work and play).

I was hoping Lion would upgrade to a format where dual monitors and spaces could be independently moved. Not only did that not happen, but now there is a gray linen texture on my other display.

A step backwards, although SL didn't do it any better.

instead of rebranding something and calling it new, they should have made something new. Calling spaces Mission Control may have fooled me once, but it shan't fool me again!

😝

TheSmokeMonster wrote:

wesbos wrote:

this is something that worked fine in 10.6 and is now broken in 10.7 and 10.8, unacceptable.

I don't think spaces worked very well with dual monitors in 10.6, forcing you to switch all monitors at once.

Agree. There should be choice. Again, at home I've got my 27" iMac next to 2 Dell u2711s set up as a single giant workspace, but my wife has her MBA attached to a TB Display so the screens don't make sense to switch together. And, Apple is totally self-contrdictory: the screens swtich together but they have separate desktop picture settings and no option to use a single image across multiple screens!

TheSmokeMonster wrote:

Spaces wasn't made for power users, it was made to hide games from the boss or parents, as it doesn't aid in anyone's workflow to have different spaces unless those workflows are completely different (work and play).

Well, that's just rediculous. I use multiple spaces in ML (and multiple desktops in Windows and Linux) every day for working on different projects, so it's especially useful to power users! I'm usually working on several projects at once at work and keep each in a different Linux desktop. At home, I have one space for mail/web/message/calendar/etc, one for work stuff, and one or two others for anything special I'm working on.

I was hoping Lion would upgrade to a format where dual monitors and spaces could be independently moved. Not only did that not happen, but now there is a gray linen texture on my other display.

A step backwards, although SL didn't do it any better.

instead of rebranding something and calling it new, they should have made something new. Calling spaces Mission Control may have fooled me once, but it shan't fool me again!

Yep - I don't think they know where they're going with this. And Full Screen is just confusing the issue even more.

At home, I have one space for mail/web/message/calendar/etc, one for work stuff, and one or two others for anything special I'm working on.

I was basing it on the fact that my workflow consists of applications working together🙂. Theoretically, I would have to assign a majority applications I use for my work to All Desktops, and none of them in fullscreen mode making it pointless to even use spaces or fullscreen apps as Mission Control(spaces) sits now. This is what I was getting at when I said that SL didn't do it any better.

If you want SL days, you can simply ignore fullscreen apps and use Mission control. It's the same thing just rebranded with Exposé slapped ontop for good measure😉.

For me, I am actively ignoring mission control and fullscreen apps, only leaving Mail as a fullscreen app for testing purposes. I want to like it but I can't. 😟 Any time I want to include an attachment that is not an image I have to move to a different space, and then drag the file to the edge of the screen, wait, and then finally be able to paste it in mail. it's so horrible.

Anyone actively using fullscreen apps with dual monitors should have saved their money and purchased an iPad, this is so ridiculous how horribly all these things function when adding what is supposedly supported hardware (a second/third monitor) 😝

TheSmokeMonster wrote:

I don't think spaces worked very well with dual monitors in 10.6, forcing you to switch all monitors at once.

I don't wish to sound disagreeable, but I've never worked with a desktop window manager that operated any differently than the extended virtual desktop paradigm that Spaces uses. Do you have some examples of Windows, Linux or UNIX window managers that enable separation of the monitors? If so, I'm curious.

While I can understand how new users to an extended desktop paradigm might feel a little confused, those of us who've been using them for many years already will feel quite at home with it. And, most of all, be careful of what you wish for, as they say. Apple's been doing a pretty good job of messing up a really good operating system in the name of making it simpler for iOS users. What comes next after Mountain Lion may very well require touch screens and no longer support pointing devices.

Don't think so? Nobody could have predicted the disasterous implementation of full-screen mode, either.

What comes next after Mountain Lion may very well require touch screens and no longer support pointing devices.

It's a scary thought, isn't it.

iOS is frighteningly restrictive.

As for apps being centrally moderated by apple, and being rejected for competing with apple's apps (eg voice calls)... fearsome.

Trane Francks wrote:

disasterous

I wanted to edit the original post, but it seems that our ability to edit our posts disappears after a while. Shame that. I hate making spelling errors. That lack of proofreading was ... disastrous.