Fast screen switching

[preznick]

Am I missing something? I'm working on an iMac. Is there a quicker way to switch between the Built-in Screen and the Virtual one? Going up to the BD menu and switching "Set as Main Display" between the two screens works, but it's kind'a a pain in the rump. Could you add some functionality for a Hot-Key the user could customize? Now that would be awesome!

[waydabber]

Hi @preznick - what do you mean by switching? You mean traversing from one screen to the other?

[chiragpurohit71085]

Is there any way for traversing from one screen to another? i.e I have created two display. Now I want to focus another display (bring display on top). Is there any shortcut for this?

[preznick]

I work on an iMac which has only one Built-in display. It it would be nice if I didn't have to go up to the BetterDisplay menu each time to select "Set as Main Display" each time I needed to switch back and forth between it and the Virtual Display. A customizable Keyboard command would be very helpful. Perhaps one of the FKeys?

Also - We need about 12 licenses. How does someone contact you for the discount?

[waydabber]

Now the issue is still that I am still not fully sure what to do you mean by switching to the other screen. You mean moving the mouse over to the virtual screen screen?

[preznick]

Sorry - but I feel I need to ask, is English not your first language? I know English can be a confusing when it's not, as a lot of words mean the same thing. But I'll try to explain this one last time...

1: I'm working on an iMac, which only has one builit-in monitor. No other monitors are connected.
2: I use your program to create a 2nd Display (Screen). So now there are two screens. One Built-in, and one Virtual.
3: If I want to access the 2nd (Virtual) display, the only way I know how is to go up to the BetterDisplay Pro menu, select the 2nd Virtual screen and select "Set as Main Display". The PIP window works, but that just increases screen clutter, and you have to constantly shrink and re-expand the window(s). A Hot-Key or Right-click, quick contact menu would work better (IMHO).

You mean moving the mouse over to the virtual screen screen?

Yes - I can move my mouse to the other screen, but it does me little good if I can't see the screen that I just moved the mouse to.

I want to see the 2nd virtual display (Full Screen - not a windoid) and use it. Then be able to quickly switch back to the original Built-in display.

Switch between these two.

[waydabber]

All right, I think I am now starting to understand where the confusion lies. Making a display main does not "switch" to that display in any way - although it is true that the windowserver will move some windows (that by default appeared originally on the then current main screen and therefore associated to it). In the global coordinate system the main screen is always the one that has its top-right corner at 0:0 coordinates - when you set a display to main, the origo of the global coordinate system that contains all screens in the layout i9s moved to the newly appointed main screen's top-right position. Depending on configuration, setting a screen main also moves the dock and the macOS menu over to the main display if your macOS installation is set up in a way that not all screens have their separate spaces (and their own menu and dock).

Changing which screen is the main screen does not switch "screens" (still the iMac screen will be the iMac screen and the virtual screen a separate invisible virtual screen with different resolution, refresh rate, logical dimensions, framebuffer etc), but if there are only two screens, you might get this impression due to the windowserver moving Windows around (generally in a way that they switch places). But I am not sure it is very useful to use virtual screens in such a placeholder role, to me it would make more sense to simply use only one display and have two separate spaces (it is very easy to switch between them).

Does this make sense?

[preznick]

when you set a display to main, the origo of the global coordinate system that contains all screens in the layout i9s moved to the newly appointed main screen's top-right position.

That's fine. On a user level, I don't really care if the origin is at 0,0 or at -1234,6789. As long as I can see the screen and use it, that's all that really matters.

I am not sure it is very useful to use virtual screens in such a placeholder role, to me it would make more sense to simply use only one display and have two separate spaces (it is very easy to switch between them).

I have used spaces and still use them now and then. The problem is, like most people these days, we work both remotely on certain days from home, and in the office on others. When logged in remotely, it's easier to use a 2nd Virtual Display and switch quickly between them, rather than using spaces. The "Screen Sharing" app makes this rather easy as it's just a menu choice (see below). It would be nice if your program had something functionally similar. If you have a document window open on the 2nd virtual display, when you come into the office, you don't want to have to switch from a Virtual Display to spaces, and back again when you're remoting in later on.

Does this make sense?

Yes - makes perfect sense. Your program is very useful. If you are wondering, the main reason we starting using it is because Apple (in their infinite wisdom - or lack thereof) have decided that headless workstations are limited to 1920 x 1080 when logging in remotely. So one is forced to either use an HDMI 'dongle' so the workstation thinks it has a monitor attached, or use BetterDisplay to "fake" one.

[waydabber]

I see. I am not sure how to best address this issue. One solution would be to simply quickly mirror the virtual screen to the real screen (or the other way around) when in the office to essentially "merge" the two screens, and then unmirror them upon leaving the office. An other way is to simply turn the virtual screen off and then back on (this can even tied to keyboard shortcuts in the app). With both solutions the windowserver will move all contents to the remaining real screen and with the second, it should put everything back to where it belonged in the first place automatically.

[bg1340]

I have the exact same feature request as the original poster. I use a 32" 4k monitor with my MacBook Pro. To save desk real estate, I usually work with my laptop in closed "clamshell" mode. So that means that I can only view the external monitor and not my MacBook screen. It would be very handy to be able to configure a virtual screen and then work with it just as if I had two physical viewable monitors: move individual application windows from one monitor to the other, etc. BetterDisplay's virtual screen feature almost allows me to do this. The last missing piece is the ability to instantly show (on my 4k monitor screen) either the content of my main 4k monitor screen or the content of my virtual monitor screen with the click of a key. I would like to use this for managing my Zoom calls. I could move the app windows that I would like to share with Zoom meeting participants to the virtual monitor, and then share that virtual monitor over the Zoom call. I could during the call still pop briefly back into my main monitor to check and respond to messages and the like, without exposing that activity in the Zoom call.

[waydabber]

I might be wrong but I don't fully understand how having a virtual and non screen and switching between them is different from simply using Spaces. But you can also create a virtual screen, open a PIP window for it and maximize it into a space or just hide/unhide the PIP window with a keyboard shortcut, quickly showing/hiding it. Am I misunderstanding the use case?

[bg1340]

Zoom considers two different MacOS spaces to be the same desktop. Zoom considers a real monitor and a virtual display to be different desktops. If I just use the Spaces feature in MacOS, and I share my desktop in Zoom, when I flip to the other space the window content in that other space will be shared with the other Zoom meeting participants. I don't want that. I want to restrict Zoom sharing to just the content in one desktop, even if I (briefly) divert my attention to do some processing in the other desktop. The PIP window solution has the same problem.

[waydabber]

All right, I understand now. What about using virtual screen and share that via Zoom and use a full screen PIP window, so you can quickly switch between your virtual screen and real screen (much like using spaces)? An other option is to start a full screen stream of the virtual screen to the real display and use the "Hide full screen stream" keyboard shortcut to toggle its visibility.