Hi, just a quick question about multiple monitors in Lion; I noticed today during the keynote them showing swiping through apps as well as full screens apps...has anyone had any experience as to how these work with two monitors (ie. stretch, full screen on one display/other uneffected, etc)? Also as a side note, was interesting to see them using macbook pros as the onstage computers, normally they use imacs/mac pros as far as I can remember..
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OS X Lion dual screens
- Thread starter dbwrobel
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I have my iMac connected to a 27 inch Cinema Display. When you are in full screen the secondary monitor displays the gray wallpaper that you see on the login screen and the mission control screen. It seems buggy as it only displays that about 50% of the time. The other times it has just been a gray screen.
When you switch to your desktop it changes to the wallpaper you have
Apple has never been very friendly towards multiple monitors. I wouldn't expect too much from them this time around.
If it were me I would want to be able to switch between my spaces depending on which monitor my cursor was on. However I can see people wanting their display's synchronized.
Items like Launchpad should pop up on the active display. And Mission Control should operate on both displays with independent full screen apps. We should be able to drag and drop full screen apps in Mission Control from one monitor to another (and they should initially go full screen on the monitor they were opened in).
And the menu bar would be at the top of every monitor column and the dock would be at the bottom of every monitor column. The menu bar would have the menu for the last active application for that monitor and the docks could be customized independently.
And not for any native apps... but maybe add an API for any developers who want to go full screen across all displays.
That would be my ideal full screen support.
Items like Launchpad should pop up on the active display. And Mission Control should operate on both displays with independent full screen apps. We should be able to drag and drop full screen apps in Mission Control from one monitor to another (and they should initially go full screen on the monitor they were opened in).
And the menu bar would be at the top of every monitor column and the dock would be at the bottom of every monitor column. The menu bar would have the menu for the last active application for that monitor and the docks could be customized independently.
And not for any native apps... but maybe add an API for any developers who want to go full screen across all displays.
That would be my ideal full screen support.
I think you are mistaken. Apple has had support for multiple monitors baked into the OS since the MacPlus (you could add a monitor with a "processor direct slot" card). And sometime close to that they made the modification to the OS to support at least 6 monitors (I remember the demo with a Mac IIfx and six external monitors). Note that this is with each monitor allowing a separate resolution and color space.
Windows did not get around to allowing you non-contiguous monitor regions (so not just a simulated bigger square region presented to Windows by a driver) until Windows XP or so, and even then it was buggy as all get-out.
So their might have been/still be bugs, but Apple is solidly in favor of multiple monitors, and has done a lot of work to make sure that they just work.
Yes, they've supported multiple nonitors for ages, but that doesn't mean their implementation is any good. How long will it take before they let us add another menubar to the second display?
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I just want to be able to change the brightness ony secondary display... It's driving me crazy! When I hook up my iMac to my MBP the brightness of the iMac goes to its maximum... I haven't found a way to change that....
I just want to be able to change the brightness ony secondary display... It's driving me crazy! When I hook up my iMac to my MBP the brightness of the iMac goes to its maximum... I haven't found a way to change that....
Multiple monitor support has really gone downhill with Lion. Not only is the new Full Screen apps a problem (which, BTW, older full screen apps like Aperture handled just fine) in that the extra monitor(s) are useless, but the handling in Mission Control is a disaster. Off course, add that to the perennial problem of menu bars...
Face the fact that OS X Lion is optimized for single, small screen notebooks, which is what Apple sells most. No thought has been given to multiple or large screens. (Just look at 27" full screen Address Book!)
Face the fact that OS X Lion is optimized for single, small screen notebooks, which is what Apple sells most. No thought has been given to multiple or large screens. (Just look at 27" full screen Address Book!)
"optimized for single, small screen notebooks"
Complete nonsense. Also, There have been third party addons available for ages that address any of the issues with menu bars and the like.But they are hacks, and nowhere as good as an official Apple-made solution would be. Besides, we shouldn't excuse Apple's failings in this area just because a few developers picked up their slack.
hmmmm that kinda sucks, I really hope they start supporting the second monitor in lion a bit better, it does seem like its a waste if all it shows is just grey when using a full screen app.....and if not, then I'll have to enjoy my 'full screen address book' lol
Since the apps are not forced into full screen, you can just use them maximized. It's amusing that the existing full screen mode of Aperture will actually take advantage of extra monitors or allow using them for other applications. Why the new full screen support in Lion can't do the same just point out that Apple only cares about small, single-screen laptops.
This sounds bad, as I was looking forward to full-screen Safari.Also the assign an app to a space is vanished... The new fullscreen apps are useless in a dual screen setup
So while I'm in a full-screen app on my main screen, my secondary screen is blanked and useless, is that correct?
This seem really odd, as full-screen Quicktime has always supported multiple monitors, to the point that you can have a full-screen movie on each screen, which is great. So why not do this for full-screen apps?
A large number of users are still professionals who are a lot more likely to have multiple monitors, and considering that the LED screens are designed as a kind of dock for your laptop, then why not take advantage of both screens?
The problem is in apps that use the Lion full-screen APIs. Any current apps that use full screen will continue to work as they have done before, unless they get recoded.
The way they have integrated the new full-screen API with Mission Control's Spaces really precludes having separate full-screen apps on separate monitors. They want to be able to switch between apps like iOS. Again, it's great on a small notebook (11" Air or 13" MacBook) but irritating on a desktop system with multiple displays.
Click and hold on the Dock icon an select the space you want to run the app or if you want to run it in all spaces. They ditched the prefpane options, and you can do it on the fly now.
I don't see any of those anticipated options
It fires actually the same as a control click, see here for details.
I don't see any of those anticipated options
right click -> options -> assign to this desktop / assign to all desktops
I'd really like a feature in OS X where you can right click on the desktop and switch it over to a HDTV. You can do that in Windows. On my black Macbook, I have to put it to sleep and then wake it up by plugging in a flash drive. Only then will it output just to the TV. If I don't do this, it will only extend the desktop and video won't play well.
I use multiple monitors on my MacPro and one thing I've found that I dislike is that when I click the full screen button in the upper right, it takes that window full screen but then my other monitors all go to the blank dashboard background screen. Why not let me full screen multiple apps, one per screen?
So far, I have not found it possible to display the dashboard on one screen and programs on the others. Which would have been a nice option.
So far, I have not found it possible to display the dashboard on one screen and programs on the others. Which would have been a nice option.
I'm guessing I will never use full screen apps on my dual monitor Mac Pro. I think they will be great on the MBP, though.
It's really a shame, since having large (screen size) apps like Final Cut or Logic in fullscreen would be great. For example; One monitor with fullscreen app that can be switched to other programs with just a gesture, and the other monitor with some monitoring programs or browsers/calendar etc.
Full Screen apps that don't use the Lion full screen API allow using the second screen for inspector windows (example: Aperture prior to the most recent update) but also allow having additional full screen apps using the second or additional screens. It's the latter ability that is gone in Lion. No matter how you look at it, it is a step backwards for using Lion with multiple screens.