Tagged: Full Screen

Drag & drop between OS X Full Screen apps just got easier

I get to try a LOT of applications and utilities, but few of them remain installed on my Macs for the long haul. This is especially true of small shareware utilities that tend to solve a relatively minor issue that few people even consider a problem to begin with.

When I tried Yoink, from Eternal Storms Software, I suspected this might be yet another one of those apps that was more trouble than the problem it attempted to solve. After using it for a short while, I was happy to find this was not the case at all.

When Lion shipped with the Full Screen feature, I found it to be cumbersome to use all the time because it limited drag & drop access between the Finder and apps that were in Full Screen mode. The problem for me was, I was really starting to enjoy using Full Screen with as many apps that would support it. Yoink solves the single, very annoying problem.

Yoink

Yoink places a small window on your screen as soon as you start dragging a file which you can then drop the file on to store it. You can drag multiple files to the window if you wish. Then when you’re ready to drop the files into another program, you simply drag them out of the window. Normally, Yoink’s window lives on the screen edge, but you can configure it to appear just next to your mouse cursor when you start dragging a file.

I find Yoink particularly useful when I want to attach several files located in multiple locations in the Finder into Mail when it’s in Full Screen mode.

You can view a brief video of Yoink in action, then purchase Yoink here for only $2.99. If you’re unsure if Yoink will work for you, there is a 15-day trial available.

OS X Mountain Lion to fix full screen support on multiple displays

When Apple releases Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) next month, we’ll be treated to hundreds of new features. But one of the most exciting for me is the ability to take advantage of multiple displays when in full screen mode.

Currently, if you have more than one display and you enter full screen mode, your secondary display is rendered completely useless. With Mountain Lion, you’ll be able to have enter full screen mode on one display and still use the secondary display for other tasks.

When Lion shipped, I wasn’t immediately in love with full screen mode, but it wasn’t long before I wished it worked on both my displays independently. This will be a very welcome feature!

[box type=”note”]It has been brought to my attention that this new functionality will NOT allow full use of the second display. Apparently, you’ll ONLY be able to use the second display for windows of the app that is currently in full screen mode. If true, this will truly suck![/box]

Apple is missing one killer option with OS X’s Full Screen feature

Full Screen iconWhen Apple announced the Full Screen feature in Lion I was quite skeptical of it. I really didn’t see the value of it from what I read. Of course, once Lion shipped and I gave Full Screen a try, I love it. It’s not just that it provides a distraction-free workspace, but when I use gestures to swipe between apps, I just feel more productive; much more so than using the application switcher, Mission Control or switching apps with the Dock icons.

Unfortunately the one feature that would make Full Screen much more valuable to me, and one that should be painfully obvious to Apple, is missing. The ability to set Full Screen as the preferred viewing method in the preferences would be a killer option.

Apple being Apple, if they were to implement this feature, they would probably put it in the System Settings and it would be an “all-or-nothing” option. But to me, that option would be a different devil in the same hell.

Putting the option in an individual application’s preferences won’t work, because we would be reliant upon the individual app developer to actually code this feature into their apps; and we simply can’t expect every developer to support this feature, at least not yet. But here’s an idea… (more…)