Gil Dawson

Q: Is there an option to allow windows to cross screens?

I recently upgraded from 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) to 10.11.3 (El Capitan).

 

I usually plug my MBPro laptop into a large screen when it's home, so that I am using two screens at the same time.

 

In System Preferences -> Displays -> Arrangement tab, checking "Mirror Displays" works the same in both Snow and El Cap.  However, unchecking that box causes very different results between the two OSs.

 

In Snow, you could put one window across both screens.  This was especially great if you had a long list in one window, or you wanted to take a large screenshot.  Moving the window around, it flowed smoothly across the boundary and you could stop it at any point.

 

In El Cap, you get two menu bars, which is nice, and they can refer to distinct apps, which is a little confusing at first, but windows are limited to one screen or the other.  If you stop moving a window while it's athwart the screen/screen boundary, the part of the window on the "other" screen simply disappears.  Moreover, certain apps can get their windows into such a state that the title bar disappears.   When this happens you can't move the window at all.  The only remedy I've found for this situation is to check the "Mirror Displays" box again so you can move the window a little bit.

 

Is it possible that Apple left us an option to go back to the old way, so that the two screens are back to being merged perceptually into a single screen with an odd shape?  I've looked in System Preferences -> Displays and Finder Preferences.  Perhaps there's somewhere else?

 

--Gil

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), Time Capsule Version 7.6.4

Posted on Feb 24, 2016 5:10 PM

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Q: Is there an option to allow windows to cross screens?

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