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

HONESTLY.  Apple, what are you doing here?!?  You have the most user-friendly system and applications and tons of people switch to you for that.  But not having support for smart two-monitor computing is just a terrible oversight!

Submit your feedback folks and maybe they will listen and change it...

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

I just did, if all the folks complaining about it submit feedback you would think Apple would consider changing it. Bassically as we know full screen mode zooms off to a new space and greys out the rest of the monitors attached. If you could hold down the option key when you click on the full screen tab in an app then be able to select which one of your monitors you would like to have the app run on that would be better but to me it still would not be perfect. I have four monitors running.

     The best fix for this issue that Apple could do would be to not create a new space when you go into full screen mode, instead place the app on the montor you want it on then just click full screen and it then goes full screen on that monitor while leaving your other screens alone, no new space and no greyed out monitors. I'm not sure why they choose to do it the way they did, true it works nicely for single monitor setups but not for multi monitors. One should have the option to run full screen apps the way they want to. You may want full screen on two monitors and then perhaps the third screen you just want to run another app as is. This method would allow you to have multipe spaces running multiple full screen apps.

The obvious work around is to just not use full screen mode, it only works with some apps like quciktime 7, VLC can still run full screen without effecting the other monitors. The only time it is actually usefull is when you watch a movie in quicktime X and full screen mode turns the other monitors black, but that is only good if you are only watching a movie and don't want to be distracted by other stuff on the other monitors.

I've reported the issue.  I hope many more will as well.

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

The guys at VMware found an interesting solution to this problem:

VMware Fusion 4.1 Release notes:

Full screen compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7 ("Lion").    Like other full screen Lion applications, a VMware Fusion virtual machine will move to a new space when using a single display. If you're using multiple displays, making a virtual machine full screen will take the whole display but not create a new space. This allows working in Mac applications on one display while the virtual machine can make full use of the other.

I think this is how it should have worked from the start.

Lance, I believe my solution was a little more thought out, tell me what you think

Thx 'dr n o', for posting this workaround. It will help me for some time.

I hope Apple will improve the full-screen app support for multi-monitor setup before fixing this very supporting 'bug'. Of course I sent my vote to provide multi-monitor support, while using full-screen apps to Apple.

But getting a long thread here will trigger Apple about this need too. Hopefully...

Lookin good to me Smoke!

Just a note. I Just found today that Final Cut Pro X let's you use two monitors when in Full screen mode. On my main monitor I have the timeline and events etc, and on my second monitor I have the video viewer.  When I first hit the full screen button the app zoomed to its new full screen space and then the viewer still appeared on the second monitor, while my other two monitors greyed out as usual.

I was aware of this, and I'm sure it was done for the reason that video editors will work in this sort of way all the time. I believe my solution could still supprt the ability to do this aswell as choose which monitor it shows up on.

Yes! This is exactly what I had in mind (though I would like the ability to force a "linked" transition with Opt + three finger swipe (or some other combination of keyboard commands).

joe! yeah I was also thinking that it could be done while holding option down so the normal function could be on and then if you are trying to rearange the screen but didn't want to go through mission control, holding option down while over a certain monitor to only swipe through that monitor is a great idea (instead of having to swith them off or on.)

You should submit feedback, feel free to use my diagram as a reference and add in your own thoughts.

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

Hey just thought I would share this link for you guys, its a workaround I found, that I have not tried yet but I am about to now. If it works then you could use this until Apple decides that multi-screen functionality for iTunes is worth their time.

http://gigaom.com/apple/workaround-itunes-video-and-dual-screens/

P.S. This is my first post on apple discussions, so if they do not allow links such as these ^ please let me know if it is not and I will happily remove.

Message was edited by: JohnnyBoy118

welcome to the discussions! this is a fun link but it's not really something I would do. I just want apple to fix this obviously old un thought out section of their OS called Spaces/mission control or update it so everyone, not just those with one small screen, can use.

People say it's for power users, but I think it's a gimmick and looses functionality once you have multiple  monitors since you basically are just separating work flows, not incorporating them or including them. Think Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. Both were the same person but never knew what either was up to when the other was around. So Dr. Jeckel (desktop 1) had no account of seeing what Mr. Hyde (desktop 2) was doing even though they were the same person.

I would rather something more like fantasia where I could make apps line up in an order I choose in a screen I disgnate for that role and still being able to see content in my other screen.

I personally wish they fixed Spaces back in SL days since it's introduction in Leo. to have it as is in Lion with Thunderbolt displays coming to fruition and people already using multiple monitors, I would think the logical step is to cater towards those with multiple monitors since they spending more money for products they don't need, giving function instead of taking it away.

As it stands, I would suggest that no one get a thunderbolt cinema display until we figure out how apple is going to solve this issue with Spaces as well as full screen apps!

imagine your $999 being used as a fabric graphic instead of allowing you to quickly access other information without having to move through things screen by screen. I digress. The more complaints we send the more people we get on board with this the better. send messages to Apple, we can make a change this time.

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

I held my tongue since Leopard days. Lion is too far down the rabbit hole to not be addressing this sort of issue. We've been quite long enough! let us not be satisfied, let us be activised !

I run Lion with two monitors on my iMac, and I have screen sharing (to a Leopard machine) running as a full screen app. Recently I've noticed that if I leave Google Earth running ( on the Lion machine)  it sometimes gets moved 'on top of' the screen sharing 'space'. I can then drag it to the other monitor ( the screen  made redundant by Fullscreen Lion Applications ) I haven't found any other way to use  the second monitor when using Lion full screen app mode .

I am a long time unix (x-windows) and MS Windows user now in the process of converting my digital life to the Mac world (starting with MacBook Pro 13" early 2011 model). I elected to run OS X Lion because

a) I was entitled to a free upgrade

b) I had NO dependancies on any applications that were not compatible with OS X Lion, and

c) I figured, why not use the latest and greatest OS given Apple has this great reputation for rock-solid and sensibly functional operating system releases.

I have to say that my experience with Apple, AppleCare, MacBook Pro and OS Lion are all pretty darned good EXCEPT for this fiasco of dual monitors and fullscreen!

The fact that if I use the "feature" of OS X Lion of putting an application into fullscreen it has the obvious negative effect of rendering the other monitors useless is indeed just plain silly. If I make an app go full screen it should go full screen on the monitor it is on and leave all other monitors unaffected.  Simple.

Many have raised their voices about this. TheSmokeMonster has expressed well a model of what should/could be the case.

I have added my voice to the feedback on this rather silly design decision/oversight/mistake in OS X Lion and to ask Apple to remedy it via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html and I encourage others to do so as well.  I hope the observation that has been made that Apple listens will in fact prove true.

Work arounds are just that - helpful (thanks contributors!) - but they don't really provide the missing functionality that should be native to the OS.

To those who say this is not needed or are critical of we who want the behaviour and functionality we are describing (fully functoning monitors when an app on one goes full screen) I ask "If this were to be incorporated into the OS would you lose any of the functionality you enjoy?" If so, then by all means explain it for the benefit of all so that we can understand your point of view.

Thanks