A tale of two Macs (part 2)...
Monday, March 16, 2009 at 11:26AM As I mentioned yesterday, I'm settling in to what on the face of it, could be a quite complex monitor setup. With the left hand monitor permanently connected to Mac Pro 1, a right hand monitor permanently connected to Mac Pro 2, finished off with a monitor connected to both via a KVM.
The issue arises that the monitors at each end are displaying the main monitor for each Mac but if I want to work on a app, it's easier to have the app displayed on the central monitor.
Now it's easy enough to drag apps from one monitor to another, but I much prefer keyboard shortcuts, so I make use of MercuryMover from Helium Foot Software to move application windows.
So if I'm working on an app on Mac Pro 1 and the app window in focus is on the left hand monitor, I just hit CTRL CMD C and the window is shunted onto the central monitor, resized to an predetermined size and positioned right ban in the centre. If I want to return the app window to the left hand monitor, CTRL CMD L and it's sent back across to the left.
So if I'm working on an app on Mac Pro 2 and the app window in focus is on the right hand monitor, I just hit CTRL CMD C and the window is shunted onto the central monitor, resized to an predetermined size and positioned right bang in the centre. If I want to return the app window to the right hand monitor, CTRL CMD R and it's sent back across to the right.
You can easily create loads of keybaord shortcuts for size and/or position using MercuryMover
The other utility I'm using a lot now that the menu bars are right over on the left or right hand side is DejaMenu. A simple little utility that pops up the application menu right under your mouse cursor, no matter where you are on the screen. It reduces considerably the amount of travelling you need to do via the mouse. Initiated by a keyboard combo, I've set this up on a spare button on each mouse so the menu bar is but one click away!
I've covered both these applications in a ScreenCastsOnline show - SCO0175 - Working with Large Monitors (and Small!)
Oh, and not forgetting Launchbar of course!
Reader Comments (1)
What you really need is a fourth monitor! Then you could stack them in kind of a diamond pattern. That would be great. Especially when you want to watch a movie or television on them... ;)