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

Yet another "omg vlc works" post -- this has been mentioned FIVE TIMES in this entire thread.

I realize it's an inconvenience to read all the pages before hand but seriously...come on now...all you had to do was go two pages back and see someone mentioned this already at least one time.

Have you tried VLC?  It seems to help.

I was just replying to the original post. Sorry for not reading all 28 pages. I had gotten to page 4-5 with no mention of VLC so I put this up. Just trying to help.

The reason it keeps getting mentioned is because that's what the fix is.  There is no other fix.  JUST USE VLC. Period.  End of story.  Stop complaining because there is nothing to complain about.  You want to do something and there is already a way to do it...

So what's the fix for terminal?  Safari?  Text edit?

If VLC ships with a built in terminal app, web browser, and text editor that doesn't blank out all your other displays when using it in full screen mode, I must be using an older release!

First of all, why the h3ll do you need a text editor to be in full screen mode?  What is so wrong about dragging the edges wider?  That happens to be how it was done on every very of OS X BEFORE 10.7.  All of a sudden that isn't good enough anymore?  The same goes for every other app (except for video playback -- that happens to make sense). 

Secondly, the same solution applies.  DON'T USE APPLE'S BROKEN FULLSCREEN IMPLEMENTATION.  USE AN APP THAT DOES FULLSCREEN PROPERLY. 

Terminal? --> iTerm2 (better in many many respects)

Safari? --> Firefox (most would agree is better for more reasons than full-screening)

Text Edit? -- That just makes no sense.  Why would you need that?  No app does it because why would sameone want plain text to be fullscreen..  If it's not plaintext, use abiword, openoffice, or MSFT Word.  Or Google Docs via Firefox... Perhaps any number of these editors has a full-screen that isn't broken -- http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/office-roundups/top-10-mac-text-editors/

You get the idea.  Find software that works.  "Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting a different outcome".  "Apple's full-screen API is wack", is old news at this point.  Find a replacement software package!

Sorry, that's not acceptable to a lot of us who have been using Macs for a long time and were perfectly happy with the way Snow Leopard worked.

Or that UTTERLY STUPID decision to allow preview to go full screen only on the  "primary" monitor.  So I attach a projector to show a screenshot and blam the projector is blank and I then have to fend off the "well Windows doesn't work like that".

I cannot stress how much this angers me.

Yeah, what's a replacement app for the preview app?

I'll check back when you find a good answer for that Norrin

A Mac user uses full-screen the way it has always worked. You drop the edges bigger! THAT'S the way Sbow Leopard worked!

There was no full-screen API in Snow Leopard!

That's what makes this so dumb. It's not possible to say Apple broke something that worked before. This didn't even exist before. So it's no worse than it was... So why all the beef....

The preview app is nothing but a replacement itself.  Nothing it does is original.  The replacement for it, that you need, depends on what file you're viewing.

Photos -- iPhoto, or firefox

PDFs -- Acrobat Reader

.doc -- Word, Abiword, OpenOffice, Google Docs

You get the idea....

Yes, I think people do need to get their head around the difference between the OS-implemented post-Lion fullscreen window mode, AKA "single application mode", and fullscreen as implemented by most 3D games, Photoshop, Powerpoint (dreadful), VLC etc, which are implemented using 3rd party methods, not OS-supplied methods which come with the standard issue OS generated title bar.

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The correct way for the OS's vanilla "single application mode" to behave on a multi-screen system should be obvious. By fullscreening a window, that window seizes the display it is on, upon which you paint the window and whatever floating palettes, with a docked menu bar. The remaining screen(s) get... the menu bar, dock, other windows, etc etc. Fullscreening a window on a screen dedicates that screen to the window, other windows are swept off to the normal Finder screen.

Cycling through applications using command-tab works contextually depending upon which display the cursor is on, if it's on the fullscreen'd display then it shuffles through, and if it's on a non-fullscreen'd display it behaves as the normal finder one does, and brings that application's windows to the front. This would allow any number of screens to be fullscreened or not, and the last remaining un-fullscreened display inherits the menu bar, dock, mission control, and open windows, should the default screen be taken by a fullscreen window. I would have thought that the default inheritance hierarchy would be size of screen from largest to smallest to receive the dock & menu bar.

Cycling through windows using command-` again would depend upon which screen the cursor was on, if it's on the fullscreen display, it cycles through those application windows in fullscreen.

This would also allow two menu bars to appear, one on the default finder view window, and the fullscreen application's menu bar.

_______

I am a user interface designer, and if Apple want to hire me, I'm willing.

I would also like to be able to assign the dock to any one of the 3 edges of each display, via the display preference. The dock should be on the thumbnails as well as the menu bar. I have thought this since 10.0!

NorrinRadd wrote:

 

A Mac user uses full-screen the way it has always worked. You drop the edges bigger! THAT'S the way Sbow Leopard worked!

 

There was no full-screen API in Snow Leopard!

 

That's what makes this so dumb. It's not possible to say Apple broke something that worked before. This didn't even exist before. So it's no worse than it was... So why all the beef....

This naive response has been rebutted time and time again in this thread; what's the point in keeping repeating it? Many apps worked fine with 'correct' full screen behaviour, including iTunes, Quicktime, DVD Player etc. in OS X pre-Lion. So, by introducing the system wide full screen behaviour Apple has infact broken full screen mode in a number of its applications. That is plain fact, I don't see how it can be disputed.

Most Mac users happen to like Apple software, in general. Otherwise they would not be Mac users. The point we are making is that we shouldn't have to use alternatives to the bundled Apple apps in order to get intuitive behaviour, we should be able to carry on working with the same Apple apps we have always used in the past. Just because switching to VLC and Firefox works for you, don't assume it does for everyone else. When the full screen behaviour is the only problem people have with Apple apps it should surely be fixed!

Oh, and the suggestion to use iPhoto as a replacement for Preview is ludicrous. For a start, being an Apple app it uses exactly the same full screen behaviour as Preview. Secondly, it doesn't even do the same thing. Preview is a simple image viewer at heart, while iPhoto is designed to manage photo albums. I don't want to have to import images into iPhoto to be able to preview them, I want to just use Preview.app!

the suggestion to use iPhoto as a replacement for Preview is ludicrous. For a start, being an Apple app it uses exactly the same full screen behaviour as Preview. Secondly, it doesn't even do the same thing. Preview is a simple image viewer at heart

Preview is not a "simple image viewer". It's a PDF viewer!! Different animal! OSX draws everything onto the screen with a form of Postscript.

iPhoto is a nightmare, since it will not access files from outside its byzantine library, and will convert your files without asking you.

The truth is that the OS behaviour has to be fixed.

Incidentally, if you just want to see an image fullscreen, you can use quicklook – hit the space bar. That *does* know how to do fullscreen properly. If you install some quicklook extensions, it'll open up all sorts of files nicely.

jonaboff91 wrote:

 

This naive response has been rebutted time and time again in this thread; what's the point in keeping repeating it? Many apps worked fine with 'correct' full screen behaviour, including iTunes, Quicktime, DVD Player etc. in OS X pre-Lion. So, by introducing the system wide full screen behaviour Apple has infact broken full screen mode in a number of its applications. That is plain fact, I don't see how it can be disputed.

 

Most Mac users happen to like Apple software, in general. Otherwise they would not be Mac users. The point we are making is that we shouldn't have to use alternatives to the bundled Apple apps in order to get intuitive behaviour, we should be able to carry on working with the same Apple apps we have always used in the past. Just because switching to VLC and Firefox works for you, don't assume it does for everyone else. When the full screen behaviour is the only problem people have with Apple apps it should surely be fixed!

 

Oh, and the suggestion to use iPhoto as a replacement for Preview is ludicrous. For a start, being an Apple app it uses exactly the same full screen behaviour as Preview. Secondly, it doesn't even do the same thing. Preview is a simple image viewer at heart, while iPhoto is designed to manage photo albums. I don't want to have to import images into iPhoto to be able to preview them, I want to just use Preview.app!

Apple broke some apps -- Agreed.

"The point we are making is that we shouldn't have to use alternatives to the bundled Apple apps in order to get intuitive behaviour, we should be able to carry on working with the same Apple apps we have always used in the past. Just because switching to VLC and Firefox works for you, don't assume it does for everyone else."

Maybe you shouldn't have to use different apps.  BUT YOU DO HAVE TO, regardless to whether you *should* or not -- If you insist of getting full-screen.  Because, as you know, Apple doesnt' work the way you want it to anymore.  FACT.

Switching to a different app IS a working solution.  The problem is some refuse to do it anyway. That's fine... but stop complaining then.  It's YOUR choice that you're still using Apple apps.... YOU choose to use an app that doesn't do full-screen properly.  Stop blaming Apple and blame yourself maybe.  If you really only cared about the functionality, you'd just use an app that works.  It seems more apparent, that instead of solely wanting the working functionality, some would prefer moreso to *force* apple do something they obviously don't plan on doing.... Well Apple isn't here.  They don't read here.  So you're screaming at the wall...

Lastly, regarding iPhoto, you can see I recommend firefox also.  It does as suggested...