Full-Screen Browser Window (Safari, IE)?

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

Hey all,

OK, in order to try to fix a problem with my Flash site, I need to know how to do the following: I need to open a browser window (with "window.open", I am assuming) that will cover the ENTIRE screen on a Mac. No Apple menu bar at the top, no dock at the bottom... I need the ENTIRE screen. Safari doesn't seem to like the 'fullscreen=yes' parameter (it doesn't do what it's supposed to) and specifying manual width and height values for the new window doesn't make it fill the screen.

Is this even possible on the Mac? Because it's easily done on Windows.

dornoforpyros · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
Hey all,

OK, in order to try to fix a problem with my Flash site, I need to know how to do the following: I need to open a browser window (with "window.open", I am assuming) that will cover the ENTIRE screen on a Mac. No Apple menu bar at the top, no dock at the bottom... I need the ENTIRE screen. Safari doesn't seem to like the 'fullscreen=yes' parameter (it doesn't do what it's supposed to) and specifying manual width and height values for the new window doesn't make it fill the screen.

Is this even possible on the Mac? Because it's easily done on Windows.

NO NO NO NO
Honestly if I'm on a website and it blows my browser window up to full I exit on the spot based on princible.

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

dornoforpyros said:
NO NO NO NO
Honestly if I'm on a website and it blows my browser window up to full I exit on the spot based on princible.

I'm not asking whether you approve... I'm asking whether it can be done. (And this is a NEW window, BTW... I'm not messing with the existing window sizing.)

yenko · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
Hey all,

OK, in order to try to fix a problem with my Flash site, I need to know how to do the following: I need to open a browser window (with "window.open", I am assuming) that will cover the ENTIRE screen on a Mac. No Apple menu bar at the top, no dock at the bottom... I need the ENTIRE screen. Safari doesn't seem to like the 'fullscreen=yes' parameter (it doesn't do what it's supposed to) and specifying manual width and height values for the new window doesn't make it fill the screen.

Is this even possible on the Mac? Because it's easily done on Windows.

I'm guessing here, but, wouldn't you have to set those paramaters in flash rather than the browser?

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

yenko said:
I'm guessing here, but, wouldn't you have to set those paramaters in flash rather than the browser?

In Flash, you can set the SIZE of the movie. I've done that; it's 1024 x 768.

However, the movie has to play INSIDE something. This can either be a browser window (Win, Mac) or in the standalone Flash player (which seems only to work in Windows). So, in order to play the movie, I have to be able to open a window that contains that movie.

This is not a problem with larger screen resolutions (1280 x 854 and larger), but on smaller resolutions, I can't get a window to open large enough to show the entire movie. THAT is why I need to know if it's possible to open a window "full screen" on a Mac (no other screen elements... I need the entire screen).

WildCowboy · Sep 20, 2005

IIRC, Safari can't do fullscreen natively. But there are third-party add-ons like Saft that can enable it. I'm just not sure if it's possible to do it from your end of things.

mnkeybsness · Sep 20, 2005

You definitely can't control the Apple menubar and Dock on a user's machine.

Design for usability. Everyone should be able to use your page.

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

mnkeybsness said:
You definitely can't control the Apple menubar and Dock on a user's machine.

Design for usability. Everyone should be able to use your page.

Well, everyone can... unless they're on a Mac at 1024 x 768 or lower.

Negative points to Apple for making a UI that isn't as flexible as Windows' is.

SummerBreeze · Sep 20, 2005

You definitely can't control the Apple menubar and Dock on a user's machine.

Design for usability. Everyone should be able to use your page.

I agree. There are still many people using 800x600 screen resolution, it's best to take those users into account as well. Also, I know that many people get angry when a webpage resizes things for them. Alienating people who can't stand this will just mean that your page will have less viewers.

Yes, I'm a definite web standards advocate, but we can all benefit from it. Check out http://www.webstandards.org/. That's just my two cents though.

kgarner · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
Well, everyone can... unless they're on a Mac at 1024 x 768 or lower.

Negative points to Apple for making a UI that isn't as flexible as Windows' is.

No. Negative points to Microsoft for making a UI that can be controlled by someone via the Internet. I like my UI just the way it is, thank you. From a modular standpoint you should be allowed to control the browser window (if you must, but please try not to. I hate that), but you get no say over the rest of the OS.

RacerX · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
Negative points to Apple for making a UI that isn't as flexible as Windows' is.

A+ for Apple for not letting rogue web developers control the user interface on a person system.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that Macs aren't like Windows for this very reason.

Just FYI, I don't think you can't do it in any Mac browser... I love this platform!

mcarvin · Sep 20, 2005

RacerX said:
A+ for Apple for not letting rogue web developers control the user interface on a person system.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that Macs aren't like Windows for this very reason.

Just FYI, I don't think you can't do it in any Mac browser... I love this platform!

Opera in fullscreen mode hides everything completely. No menubar, no dock, no nothing except for the browser.

Hijacking a user's window is quite a hostile user experience. What are you trying to accomplish? Also, would your whateveritis need all 1920x1600 of my screen to accurately communicate thing? Even designing for 1024x768 is still a little controversial today. I do UxD at my agency and I know I'm not the only UX guy here at Macrumors. I'm sure we could help with a solution.

/dornoforpyros, mnkeybsness, SummerBreeze, kgarner, RacerX - preach on. Some WaSPs stings are good for you

homerjward · Sep 20, 2005

think of those of us who like to use firefox in single-window mode! (forcing new windows to open in new tabs) you're messing with our existing window. but seriously, regardless of what browser is being used it really annoys me to have the browser do that. but meh--i suppose there are a lot worse things that could be done to a web site. *coughmyspacecough*

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

mcarvin said:
Opera in fullscreen mode hides everything completely. No menubar, no dock, no nothing except for the browser.

Hijacking a user's window is quite a hostile user experience. What are you trying to accomplish? Also, would your whateveritis need all 1920x1600 of my screen to accurately communicate thing? Even designing for 1024x768 is still a little controversial today. I do UxD at my agency and I know I'm not the only UX guy here at Macrumors. I'm sure we could help with a solution.

/dornoforpyros, mnkeybsness, SummerBreeze, kgarner, RacerX - preach on. Some WaSPs stings are good for you

OK, I guess I wasn't clear.

When you visit my site, if you visit the Flash portion of my site (not the HTML portion -- that part works like any other web site), the Flash portion REQUIRES 1024 x 768 of real estate in order to function... I didn't compose it any smaller than that because it would be too cramped.

If your resolution is 1280 x 854 or HIGHER, the Flash portion pops up in a new window. This is fine, and works for everyone.

However, if your resolution is lower than that (essentially, 1024 x 768 or lower), the only way the Flash portion of the site can be displayed is in a full-screen mode... it's still a pop-up window, technically (so your original browser window is NOT affected), but it needs the entire screen. On Windows, this is not a problem; the Flash Player for Windows can substitute for the browser and run as a full-screen window. On the Mac, it cannot.

Jesus, some of y'all are acting like I'm some sort of hacker or ne'er-do-well... but all I am asking is a simple question: Can I run a pop-up window (THERE IS NO RESIZING!!!!) in a full-screen mode on a Mac?

The answer, it would seem, is no. So Mac users are just going to have to suffer, unless they have higher than 1024 x 768 resolution.

mcarvin · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
OK, I guess I wasn't clear.

When you visit my site, if you visit the Flash portion of my site (not the HTML portion -- that part works like any other web site), the Flash portion REQUIRES 1024 x 768 of real estate in order to function... I didn't compose it any smaller than that because it would be too cramped.

If your resolution is 1280 x 854 or HIGHER, the Flash portion pops up in a new window. This is fine, and works for everyone.

However, if your resolution is lower than that (essentially, 1024 x 768 or lower), the only way the Flash portion of the site can be displayed is in a full-screen mode... it's still a pop-up window, technically (so your original browser window is NOT affected), but it needs the entire screen. On Windows, this is not a problem; the Flash Player for Windows can substitute for the browser and run as a full-screen window. On the Mac, it cannot.

Jesus, some of y'all are acting like I'm some sort of hacker or ne'er-do-well... but all I am asking is a simple question: Can I run a pop-up window (THERE IS NO RESIZING!!!!) in a full-screen mode on a Mac?

The answer, it would seem, is no. So Mac users are just going to have to suffer, unless they have higher than 1024 x 768 resolution.

Apologies for the misunderstanding. It's all good.

The answer is no, I'm not aware of any native Mac browser functionality that allows full screen mode, aside from Opera and iCab. IE/Mac may but I don't have it on my system, nor is it coming back.

dornoforpyros · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
The answer, it would seem, is no. So Mac users are just going to have to suffer, unless they have higher than 1024 x 768 resolution.

Seems a little unfair to the iBook owners....

you gotta remember when your designing for a certain resolution (let's say 1024 X 768) you don't have the whole screen to work with, as you've noticed their menu bars and such as well as the browser itself around it.
Honestly if you built for 1000 X 700 you've still got lots of room and you don't have to worry about poor display on 1024 X 768

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

dornoforpyros said:
Seems a little unfair to the iBook owners...

you gotta remember when your designing for a certain resolution (let's say 1024 X 768) you don't have the whole screen to work with, as you've noticed their menu bars and such as well as the browser itself around it.
Honestly if you built for 1000 X 700 you've still got lots of room and you don't have to worry about poor display on 1024 X 768

Actually, that's where you're wrong. In Windows, you CAN access the entire screen resolution... IE has a full-screen mode (easily toggled with F11), and you can run Flash movies full-screen (with no OS UI at all).

But I'm not going to be redesigning my entire Flash site for the benefit of a few Mac 1024x768-or-lower users.

dornoforpyros · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
Actually, that's where you're wrong. In Windows, you CAN access the entire screen resolution... IE has a full-screen mode (easily toggled with F11), and you can run Flash movies full-screen (with no OS UI at all).

But I'm not going to be redesigning my entire Flash site for the benefit of a few Mac 1024x768-or-lower users.

than pick a new career bro, because if you can't handle building websites to a certain standard (say the size of the SCREEN) then you should't be building websites at all.

By your logic if we were building moter vehicles and you just 'decide' to build your massive SUV that is the width of 3 lanes than anyone who lives/needs to drive down a 1-2 lane road is out of luck than I doubt you'd sell many.

Think about it man, the needs of the user go beyond your designers pride.

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

dornoforpyros said:
than pick a new career bro, because if you can't handle building websites to a certain standard (say the size of the SCREEN) then you should't be building websites at all.

By your logic if we were building moter vehicles and you just 'decide' to build your massive SUV that is the width of 3 lanes than anyone who lives/needs to drive down a 1-2 lane road is out of luck than I doubt you'd sell many.

Think about it man, the needs of the user go beyond your designers pride.

Come on. You shouldn't make statements about what I do without some basis in fact.

The fact is that the commercial sites I've built aren't like this, because (for starters) they're all HTML-based with no Flash (except one, which I built for free and which was designed at a lower resolution, and the person I built it for loves it).

This is my personal Flash site I'm talking about, and I designed it to meet what I consider a minimal standard... everyone in my family, my Mom included, can view my site without any problems. (Of course, I'm the only person in my family who owns a Mac.)

I didn't apply any such silly SUV argument when I was designing the site... I chose a resolution that's viewable by well over 95% of users out there without any issues... ANYONE with Windows at 1024 x 768 or higher is OK, and anyone with a Mac at 1280 x 854 or higher is OK. It's just this one damn stumbling block on the Mac (no fullscreen Flash movies) that I can't overcome, and which I am now absolutely NOT going to try to overcome.

dornoforpyros · Sep 20, 2005

clayj said:
I designed it to meet what I consider a minimal standard...

Well I'm afraid the rest of the web community disagrees with "your" standards.

clayj · Sep 20, 2005

dornoforpyros said:
Well I'm afraid the rest of the web community disagrees with "your" standards.

Well, bully for them.

But this is an area where I consider the Mac to be inferior. And thanks to everyone for criticizing my question, rather than trying to answer it. (Except for WildCowboy, who actually did offer a useful bit of information.) I wish you all would have just said "no, it can't be done" and left it at that.

Full-Screen Browser Window (Safari, IE)?

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