Subject: Re: [Witch Talk] switching windows from different apps across monitors / displays

From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 15:25:01 -0800

On Feb 9, 2017, at 3:22 PM, Tom Hundt <[email-masked]> wrote:

> You can roll your own Split Screen using BetterTouchTool.  I bound stuff to the numpad and arrow keys: Ctrl-Opt-Alt-Left makes the window take up the left half of its screen, Ctrl-Opt-Alt-Right the right.  Boom, it's split.  On the numpad, Ctrl-Opt-Alt-4 (aka numpad left) makes it take the leftmost third; Ctrl-Opt-Alt-5 the middle third, etc.  Nice on widescreen monitors. There's a lot you can do.

We, um, make an app that does exactly that. It's actually our best seller ;).

https://manytricks.com/download/moom <https://manytricks.com/download/moom>

regards;
-rob.

---

From: Tom Hundt <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 15:22:26 -0800 (PST)

I always have that thing disabled; most of Mission Control/Spaces just 
seems like a marketing gimmick to me. 

You can roll your own Split Screen using BetterTouchTool.  I bound stuff to 
the numpad and arrow keys: Ctrl-Opt-Alt-Left makes the window take up the 
left half of its screen, Ctrl-Opt-Alt-Right the right.  Boom, it's split. 
 On the numpad, Ctrl-Opt-Alt-4 (aka numpad left) makes it take the leftmost 
third; Ctrl-Opt-Alt-5 the middle third, etc.  Nice on widescreen monitors. 
There's a lot you can do.

On Friday, February 5, 2016 at 6:29:16 AM UTC-8, Many Tricks wrote:
>
> On Feb 5, 2016, at 3:07 AM, Malcolm Smith <[email-masked] 
> <javascript:>> wrote: 
>
> > I think you should recommend users with multiple monitor disable the 
> "Displays have Spaces" feature, either in the install guide or on your tips 
> page. Without this disabled when you attempt to switch to the window of an 
> app that has multiple windows on different monitors you get the wrong 
> window becoming active, and you have to perform the switch again to get the 
> window you want. 
>
> It should activate the proper window, but it has to activate *all* the 
> windows of the app in order to do that. Are you not seeing that? 
>
> The problem with recommending people disable the feature is that it breaks 
> some other stuff: you can't use split screen mode, for instance. (I 
> reported this as a bug, because it seems really stupid that they're linked; 
> no response as of yet.) 
>
> But next time we revise the help, I'll add it as a tip for people to try. 
>
> regards, 
> -rob.

---

From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 06:29:15 -0800

On Feb 5, 2016, at 3:07 AM, Malcolm Smith <[email-masked]> wrote:

> I think you should recommend users with multiple monitor disable the "Displays have Spaces" feature, either in the install guide or on your tips page. Without this disabled when you attempt to switch to the window of an app that has multiple windows on different monitors you get the wrong window becoming active, and you have to perform the switch again to get the window you want. 

It should activate the proper window, but it has to activate *all* the windows of the app in order to do that. Are you not seeing that?

The problem with recommending people disable the feature is that it breaks some other stuff: you can't use split screen mode, for instance. (I reported this as a bug, because it seems really stupid that they're linked; no response as of yet.)

regards,
-rob.

---

From: Malcolm Smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 03:07:08 -0800 (PST)

Hi,

I'm glad I found this thread, I was about to give up on Witch because 'it 
didn't work' but disabling "Displays have Spaces" has sorted the app 
switching issue across multiple monitors I was experiencing. 

Now I've finally got proper Windows/Linux style window switching with 
alt-tab! Works great, thanks.

On Wednesday, 28 October 2015 14:38:18 UTC, Many Tricks wrote:
>
> On Oct 28, 2015, at 6:58 AM, Andreas Grimm <[email-masked] 
> <javascript:>> wrote: 
>
> > Is that behaviour by design? 
> > I really only wanted to switch from one application's window to one 
> window from another application (on a different screen), without affecting 
> other windows (like windows suddenly being hidden etc.). 
>
> It's not really by design, it's "by workaround." Apple has made it 
> increasingly difficult for us to do anything with Spaces. Until our latest 
> update, you couldn't even do what you described in 10.10 and later; it just 
> wouldn't work. To make it work, we have to actually activate the 
> application, which brings all windows to the foreground. 
>
> The only fix is to disable "Displays have Spaces." (I do this, but mainly 
> because I often want a window spanning two displays, and you can't do that 
> in that mode.) 
>
> -rob.

---

From: Andreas Grimm <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 07:42:30 -0700 (PDT)

ok. thanks for the quick reply.

I'll just wait then and see if Apple makes it possible again at some point 
in the future :)

---

From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 07:38:16 -0700

On Oct 28, 2015, at 6:58 AM, Andreas Grimm <[email-masked]> wrote:

> I really only wanted to switch from one application's window to one window from another application (on a different screen), without affecting other windows (like windows suddenly being hidden etc.).

It's not really by design, it's "by workaround." Apple has made it increasingly difficult for us to do anything with Spaces. Until our latest update, you couldn't even do what you described in 10.10 and later; it just wouldn't work. To make it work, we have to actually activate the application, which brings all windows to the foreground. 

The only fix is to disable "Displays have Spaces." (I do this, but mainly because I often want a window spanning two displays, and you can't do that in that mode.)

-rob.

---

From: Andreas Grimm <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 07:08:31 -0700 (PDT)

I should note that I have activated the setting "Displays have separate 
Spaces".

On Wednesday, 28 October 2015 14:58:21 UTC+1, Andreas Grimm wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> let's imagine the following scenario:
>
> on display 1:
>
>    - google chrome app - window 1
>    
>
> on display 2:
>
>    - google chrome app - window 2
>    - slack app - window 1
>    
>
>
>    1. I focus the first display's "google chrome app - window 1"
>    2. I mouse click on second display's "slack app - window 1" (which 
>    brings "chrome app - window 2" into the background, let's say "slack app - 
>    window 1" overlays most of it's content)
>    3. (using the "Witch" app) I switch to the first display's "google 
>    chrome app - window 1"
>
>
> When executing step 3 it happens that the second display's "google chrome 
> app - window 2" is being focused as well and is now overlaying / hiding 
> the "slack app - window 1".
>
> I really only wanted to switch from one application's window to one window 
> from another application (on a different screen), without affecting other 
> windows (like windows suddenly being hidden etc.).
>
> Best
>  Andreas
>

---

From: Andreas Grimm <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 06:58:21 -0700 (PDT)

Hi,

on display 1:

on display 2:

When executing step 3 it happens that the second display's "google chrome 
app - window 2" is being focused as well and is now overlaying / hiding the 
"slack app - window 1".

Best
 Andreas