I think a great addition to full screen apps would be for one, the ability of course to have more than one if you have multiple displays...I really hope that is fixed....and the other thing that is annoying me is that no other app can exist on top of a full screen app. So if I have a chat open it can not be on top of my browser...that is pointless. I think non-fullscreen apps should be able to occupy the same space as full screen apps. Why make full screen it's own desktop? Why not just work it like every other OS uses full screen? So far this is my only complaint with Lion....oh that and the inability to pin and rearrange desktops in MC....fix those items and it will be a perfect OS!
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I love fullscreen apps, but....
- Thread starter gentlefury
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Full screen is a good idea but it's badly implemented in Lion. I stopped using full screen now, and it's SO MUCH easier to navigate through Mission Control like that. I hate how it creates a new space, and I hate how slow the animation is, and how difficult it is to drag things to and from full screen apps.
I don't have any slowdown...everything is lightning fast...its just the inability to rearrange full screen and desktops and the inability to have non-fullscreen apps on top that makes it less than ideal for a browser. I have calendar, terminal and mail in full screen tho.
As of today I'm not using Full Screen apps anymore, at all, and it has made my Mission Control much less cluttered and much easier to use. I have on desktop per app, I can multitask, and I can open new windows anywhere I want without worrying about getting yanked to a random space. Moreover, I don't feel "locked in" to the app, and I can always see the date and time at the top. Also, no matter how awesome Safari is in Full Screen, if I need to see the desktop, I can't unless I swipe to another space and do an impossible four-finger spread gesture.
Bye bye full screen, it was nice while it lasted!
Bye bye full screen, it was nice while it lasted!
You need to understand what Lion is trying to do when it comes to full-screen viewing.
Understand that Lion treats full-screen apps (that you choose to view in full-sceen) in a special manner. They are apps "in focus", windows that are "in focus." As such, they get their own Space and are separated from the rest.
You choose to view something full-screen, Lion thinks it's special. Lion thinks you really want to get into it and experience it fully, no distractions.
I had the same complaint as you. Then I adjusted my workflow a bit, and now full-screen app behaviour seems obvious and natural. Try it.
That makes sense. I don't think one can understand that until one experiences it.
I was just browsing Netflix and realized that I was sucked into it. It was like the OS wasn't even there. Lion's fullscreen apps make it so it's just you and your content. With that in mind, I freaking love it now.
I'm happy for ya!
I had the SAME reaction at first, and I posted it right here on MR. Then I set about playing with full-screen for a while. I opened an old Fighting Fantasy adventure book scanned into PDF format. I went to full-screen in the Preview app. Just enjoying the book and getting into it. It looked great, and flipping through pages with simple gestures felt natural. And before I knew it I was engrossed. The OS was GONE. Just me and the book-in-LCD-display-form.
That's the point. It's not you experiencing the OS. It's you experiencing the content. Think of it as a "distraction-free" mode. Full screen is all about getting intimate with the content, and if applicable, your manipulation of that content, whether reading a document in pages or working on an image. And, accordingly, you can't drag anything else into that special space. It's only for that particular "project." Once you start working in full screen, I'll wager you get more interested in what you're doing and more focused. There isn't any extra cruft like the Dock, icons and stuff in the OS peeking out and vying for your attention.
Then you realize another thing: this same philosophy is what makes iOS so effective. It's all about working with apps and content, not working with the OS. The focus is on the user, not on the process of manipulating the OS. You get to your apps quickly, then the OS is out of the way.
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Swiping from full space to full space has pretty much become central to my workflow. You can swipe partially and even get a peek at what's going on in adjacent spaces. Love it.
I really need to get a magic trackpad (rocking a C2D white Macbook). The keyboard shortcuts don't give you nearly that much control.
I use 3 monitors, full screen just didn't really take off for me. I like the idea, but it doesn't make sense. And I'm about to add a fourth monitor!!
^You draft your replies to the MR forums?
Hehe, not exactly. That's a paper I'm working on. Nothing to do with tech.
But I like your thinking.
In my experience, the Lion full-screen implementation makes a fair amount of sense if you only have one monitor.
But if you have more than one, it's just plain absurd.
Here is what my three screen iMac looks like under Snow Leopard
Full screen Aperture in the center, Mail on the left, Safari on the right, as an example. But it could be anything useful on either of these.
Lion looks the same except that both left and right monitors are overlayed with a grey linen pattern.
This is the single reason why I am still using Snow Leopard on my iMac.
I didn't buy monitors to display fake grey linen. The real linen is cheaper.
Please provide feedback on this design decision via - http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
I'm hoping that if enough pressure is built up, they'll add an option:-
"Allow me to use my external displays = Yes/No"
Imagine how ticked off people are who just bought one or two of the new Thunderbolt Cinema displays at $999 each and plugged them into their Lion system! $1,998 worth of fake linen!!
But if you have more than one, it's just plain absurd.
Here is what my three screen iMac looks like under Snow Leopard
Full screen Aperture in the center, Mail on the left, Safari on the right, as an example. But it could be anything useful on either of these.
Lion looks the same except that both left and right monitors are overlayed with a grey linen pattern.
This is the single reason why I am still using Snow Leopard on my iMac.
I didn't buy monitors to display fake grey linen. The real linen is cheaper.
Please provide feedback on this design decision via - http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
I'm hoping that if enough pressure is built up, they'll add an option:-
"Allow me to use my external displays = Yes/No"
Imagine how ticked off people are who just bought one or two of the new Thunderbolt Cinema displays at $999 each and plugged them into their Lion system! $1,998 worth of fake linen!!
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Magic Mouse is great too. And in conjunction with BetterTouchTool I can make it do just about any gesture same almost just like the Magic Trackpad. Although I'd like to get the Magic Trackpad in addition.
On the topic of immersion, if you enjoy Pages and use it a lot for long tracts of text, give this a try next time:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1202726/
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The whole point of full-screen is that it is immersive, that it gets rid of everything else and hones in on the content, the fact that the dock and menubar can still be accessed in full-screen mode is great, but for smaller macs like the 13's, and more importantly the 11 inch's, having the menubar there the whole time would take space, that I don't need it to take. Having the menubar there, even optionally, would defeat the purpose of full screen. if you want to always see the menubar, and can't live with taking the 2 seconds it takes to flick your mouse upwards, then just don't use apps in full screen. Problem solved.
It's a refreshing way of doing things. Especially if your content is such that it needs to be nursed and adjusted over time, such as long academic papers, novels, etc. So you're always in full screen mode, able to focus and get more done.
Additionally, the ability to view colourful documents full screen in Preview is fantastic. What a way to showcase something.
It feels very spacial.
You don't feel as if you're viewing a document in Preview; you're flipping through it like you would in real life. You don't feel as if you're manipulating a word processor; you're just writing away, just you and a modernized typewriter.
Yes I can. But a gesture is easier, and in Snow Leopard that was the way things worked. I don't like to go back one step, and stop using something new that I loved.
For all of you saying that Full Screen is good because it's supposed to be without distractions: I agree! Of course, it makes sense, and it's a great idea. What I said was that it's badly implemented. I don't always want to have my apps in full screen. I still want to have one major app per Desktop, though. I want one desktop for Safari, one desktop for Photoshop, one for Mail, etc... Now when I decided to make Safari full screen, what happens? It leaves its dedicated desktop that I only had created for Safari, and enters its own full screen desktop. So I have one more desktop to deal with, that's one more extra swipe, and I have a useless empty desktop that Safari left behind. Why can't it stay where the hell I put it, especially if there's nothing else running on that desktop?
The second thing is that you can't reposition them. What if I want Safari and Skype to be next to each other, because I'm chatting with someone about Quantum physics, while browsing Wikipedia, pretending to be smart? I can't! I have to swipe 5 times each time to get from Safari to Skype and back.
Full Screen is a good idea, it's nice, but badly implemented.