MAC Multi Display Help

Potential-Monke

Howdy all! Where I work, we use Mac Minis, and while they are easy to use there are some things which I just can't manage to work. I recently got a second screen, finally, but there's something annoying me that I can't seem to fix.

Basically, I need to click on each screen to make it active. So if I want to use both screens at the same time and switch between typing from one to the other, it always required an extra click to activate that screen before I can do anything. Is there any way around this, such as making them both active at the same time?

Mac Mini (Late 2014)
Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6

Thanks in advance!

yoyo

Moved from Comp & Tech

brav

When you say you have to click on another screen to type there I struggle to see the issue here?
You mean you have say 2 apps open, one on each display, you are typing in one app on one screen say word, then on the other screen you have mail and want to type in Mail, then it is surely expected to click where you want the cursor to go to to start typing there.

The default behaviour is having each display having their own desktops, however you can change that your desktop spans both display so the app can stretch across the 2 of them of that is what you mean.

Potential-Monke

Close, but I need to click on the second screen to make it active, and then click into whatever program I want to use. So right now, I'm typing on the right screen, and in order to use my main program on the left screen, I need to click anywhere on the left screen to activate it, then click into the program to type/search/whatever. So the left screen is greyed out at the top to indicate it's not the active screen. I can still mouse over stuff, but in order to actually use anything on the left screen, I need to activate it first and then start using the programs.

In comparison, when I use my windows laptop and connect a second screen, it's more like an expanded desktop rather than a separate one, as appears to be the case on the Mac.

brav

Yes there would be a primary display with dock etc on it but don’t ever remember having to click twice to start typing on non primary display.

However you can change it to the windows type of one big desktop stretched out, by disabling the setting System Preferences- Mission Control - Displays have separate spaces.
Once this is off it should work like it did in windows I think

https://slatemt.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012022007-Mac-OSX-Spaces-Desktops-Using-Multiple-Monitors-with-the-Raven

Potential-Monke

Tried that, and still the same, still need to click to activate the screen. For example, i'm typing in here now and on the left is Zendesk with the reply box. On Windows, I click on the text box and the icon comes up and I can start typing straight away. Right now on this Mac, I have to click on the text box and click again to get the icon to show to start typing. It's still like the 2 screens are separate to each other.

Another example, if I click anywhere on this screen to take the icon out of this text box, I just have to click back on the text box to get the icon to show and start typing again. If I click off the text box, then do something on the other screen, clicking into this text box again will activate the screen but I have to click a second time to get the typing icon. Very minor issue, just infuriating as I have to do it hundreds of times a day.

brav

I work myself with macs and multiple display all day and not noticed that, I’ll have to check it on work on Monday, but I am on latest version or on betas

Potential-Monke

Could be my version, for some reason they're not updating to the latest. Feck it, I've applied for a different job so hopefully won't have to put up with it for longer!

brav

So I tested this on 10.14.6 and 10.13.6 here in the office, with Safari, Pages, Word and some in house apps.

On text document based apps such as Pages etc, when I click on another window on a different monitor that is not active(more greyed out), it only requires 1 click and the typing cursor jumped to where I clicked and I could start typing. This was the same in Word and in house document based apps.

The only time I saw the behaviour you describe is for say a webkit kind of app or a webpage, where if there is a web page open with text fields but fields like username etc, so maybe the Zendesk software you mention is just a webkit thing and is loading a page and the fields you are typing in are not standard "textarea".
For the one line text fields in Safari the page has to be active first before I can click in to the field. this happens though even if page is one same window but in background, so not a multi display thing.

I do have the setting enabled for Displays having separate spaces.

Potential-Monke

I can't figure it out, but not to worry, I'm changing jobs in a couple of weeks, I'll be back to the good ole Windows!

Thanks for all the help though!