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

Under Leopard and Snow Leopard there was a nice program which anticipates the whole fullscreen hype: RightZoom. Just one shortcut and you maximize your window. Works under Lion as well on every displays.

And if you like working without menu bar, you can use Megazoomer. Unfortunatly it does’nt work with every Lion app... .

I find a way to change the ugly fullscreen texture on the left display. Path: > System > Library > Frameworks > AppKit.framwork > Versions > C > Resources > NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png.

(Needs admin rights.)

And if you hate the Mission Control background you have to change following pngs:

backgroundTile.png

ecsb_background_tile.png

defaultdesktop.png

Path: > System > Library > CoreServices > Dock.app > Contents > Resources

yes this dual screen fullapp problem is for me a desaster two !!

for my work i must watch quicktime movies in fullscreen on my second screen i love quicktime but now

i am forced to download VLC player!!

And why i cant use the second screen when a app is in fullscreen ??

i cant believe it !!!

please god fix it !

geetduggal

Once having tricked it, will it allow existing open apps to display normally?

Do you have to keep tricking it whenever going into fullscreen mode?

And do you think it will work with more than two displays?

Hi John,

> Once having tricked it, will it allow existing open apps to display normally?

If we understand your question, I believe so. When we perform the trick, no other applications seem to be affected. However, we do notice that when opening Safari or Chrome, the autocomplete box for the URL opens in another space temporarily but then returns you to your full-screened space after you choose the URL.

> Do you have to keep tricking it whenever going into fullscreen mode?

Anytime you open an application in an existing full-screened space, the trick must be applied.

> And do you think it will work with more than two displays?

When an application successfuly loads in a full-screened display, there doesn't appear to be a restriction on where you can move the application. We don't have a dual external monitor setup to try this on, however.

Also, this is of course just a hack. As awesome as Apple stuff is, they need to fix this :-).

Geet

Thank you so much for your reply!!

Another question just to clarify things.

Let's say I have Aperture open on my main display, but not in full screen mode. And I have other apps which I want open on the 2nd and 3rd displays. Then I use your trick like this

Switch Aperture to full screen mode

Do the three finger move, hold it, and then open TextEdit etc

Will all the other apps now become (or stay) visible on the secondary display(s)?

Will the situation stay stable is I switch back and forth beaween Aperture (in fullscreen mode) and the other (non-full screen mode) apps

Sorry if I'm kind of asking the same question again, but the devil is in the details.

Apple needs to fix this Im still in snow leopard and dont plan to move to Lion unless this issue is addressed. I dont see that as more productive its much less productive, and negates the whole reason why I have a mac to output to my TV and watch movies while browsing or playing other games.

Totally unacceptable that trick does sound interesting I might try it next time Im around a lion computer.

Geet

I tried your trick, but when I click on TextEdit, Aperture slides off the screen.

When I bring Aperture back, I can see TextEdit, but not the previously opened apps

But it was an interesting experiment!

Absolutely INSANE. I can't believe Apple released an OS that does this. I have a TV that I watch movies on using my Macbook, and now this doesn't work with dual screens!! It better be fixed in the next update or I'm going back to Snow Leopard. Biggest waste of $30.

I absolutely shocked that his made it through the what should be rigorous testing and development at Apple. In a world where dual screen (or more liek me with 4 monitors running on a mac pro) is so common place with most desktop users this is a glaring oversight to take the versatility of dual screens and cut them off at the knees. I don't see Apple eliminating the dual or quad screen inputs in their mac pros, or even their mac mini's for that matter. So why the glaring "oops our software doesn't work with the hardware the WE put out. Good on everyone posting the complaint because it's a BIG one and hopefully we'll see a patch to lion soon so that I can go back to this crazy little thing called multi tasking.....C' Mon Apple you are so better than this....

I hate to say it, but how can this be so difficult? Why did Apple have to over complicate this. Seriously it's taken them what, 10+ years to introduce this feature MS Windows has had from the start and when they do introduce it, it's virtually unusable. Why cant the window just maximise to the edge of the screen like on windows? All this Mission control/dashboad/full screen/corners makes me giddy - I have windows flying around everywhere.

Matt Wie wrote:

I hate to say it, but how can this be so difficult? Why did Apple have to over complicate this. Seriously it's taken them what, 10+ years to introduce this feature MS Windows has had from the start and when they do introduce it, it's virtually unusable. Why cant the window just maximise to the edge of the screen like on windows? All this Mission control/dashboad/full screen/corners makes me giddy - I have windows flying around everywhere.

I think you're confusing Full Screen with a Maximized screen. Windows has had a maximized screen option since Windows 95, probably to soften the impact of transitioning from DOS. But, Full Screen mode is not quite the same thing.

The current Full Screen mode is more comparable to what happens on an iPhone or iPad, devices not commonly used with 2nd monitors. The idea is to focus everyhting to the one screen.

Note, have you ever tried using Excel for Windows with 2 spreadsheets, one on each screen, with a two monitor setup?

Lanny wrote:

<snip>

Note, have you ever tried using Excel for Windows with 2 spreadsheets, one on each screen, with a two monitor setup?

Lanny, that's funny. Used to drive me crazy when using Windows. I'm happy to say that under Snow Leopard, Excel 2011 is able to give me three full-screen spreadsheets, one on each of my monitors.

I have no idea what the Exel behavior is under Lion, because I reverted when I saw how it treated Aperture.

John Kitchen wrote:

Lanny wrote:

<snip>

Note, have you ever tried using Excel for Windows with 2 spreadsheets, one on each screen, with a two monitor setup?

Lanny, that's funny. Used to drive me crazy when using Windows. I'm happy to say that under Snow Leopard, Excel 2011 is able to give me three full-screen spreadsheets, one on each of my monitors.

I have no idea what the Exel behavior is under Lion, because I reverted when I saw how it treated Aperture.

Office 2011 hasn't been updated for Lion's full screen mode, but when it is, it'll probably act the same as the other current full screen apps. However, you can use maximized screen apps on multiple screens just like you can in Snow Leopard. The key is that a maximized screen is not the same as a full screen.

Excel works perfectly when using multi monitors on Windows. You just have to run two copies of Excel. Once you've done that you just expand each window to fill the screen. I do this every day.

Apple's implementation of full screen / maximise window is a comedy of errors, they just can't get it right.