Dual Monitors

Hi,
I am brand new to Apple products, my knowledge with Macs is limited, and the issue I encounter is I don’t really know the correct question to ask pertaining to Macs or Apple products. I don’t expect anyone to try and read my mind or anything like that to try and figure this out. So I will try to be as descriptive as possible, so my apologies precede this long dissertation of a question.
We have a Mac desktop. OS Mountain Lion 10, my wife uses it for work, and I have set up a second monitor to it. The second monitor is a Dell flat screen. I was able to make them work; meaning I can see and move my mouse from desktop to desktop with no problems .The second monitor is only going to be used as a document viewer, so she can have the document open while she works on the program on the Mac.
The issue we are experiencing is this, she can open a program on the main monitor (Mac) and it’s fine. She then will open documents on the Mac and it opens fine, but when trying to move the document to the second monitor just to have them up for review while having the program up on the Mac, it will not move from the Mac screen at all. I have tried changing the display configs, Primary and secondary etc. and no luck. Not sure what else to try, so any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Is it one particular program or all programs? Also, have you tried the settings where you can assign where monitor is located?
Top Menu/Apple/System Preferences/Displays/Arrangement

I have tried the display arrangements as well but no luck and it is all programs.

one more quick question, which monitor has the higher resolution? The main monitor or the dell? Also, is the dell positioned horizontal or vertically?

and might want to try this in the meantime, if you haven't already, you can move the top menu bar over to the second monitor, making it your default screen.

That can be done by going to your deiplay settings and in under arrangement, dragging the white horizontal box over to the other monitor, making your top menus appearing there. Then maybe you will be able to drag from the dell to the main screen.

What happens when you grab the top of a window and start dragging it when your cursor moves to the other screen?

@ martoonx- the Mac has the higher resolution and is the larger of the two monitors, I have tried the menu bar trick, the dell monitor , the doc viewer is rotated vertically.

@ bobtomay - what happens is when it's grabbed and moved, it won't leave the edge of the program screen. Like it hits a wall so to speak.


Thanks a lot for all the replies and ideas to try,I really appreciate it.

ok, that makes sense, What may be happening is that the opened window on your main screen is too large to drag over

Try this. In the main monitor, make the window that is open, much smaller. You can do this by dragging the bottom right corner of the opened app window towards the top left. Once its smaller, try dragging it over to the dell and resize back up accordingly.

Ok, I will give that and try, I have not tried it before, at this point I am willing to try anything. Just out of curiosity, does having the monitor rotated make a difference one way or the other?

BW33511 said:

...
@ bobtomay - what happens is when it's grabbed and moved, it won't leave the edge of the program screen. Like it hits a wall so to speak.


Thanks a lot for all the replies and ideas to try,I really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

I have only seen that occur when dragging a window to the wrong side of the primary display. The only side of the screen you can drag a window to the second screen is the same side it allows you to move the cursor to that screen. It is going to hit a wall if you try to use any of the other 3 sides of the screen.

The 2nd screen - it is in extended desktop mode? That is it shows your desktop and nothing else on that screen - no menu bar, no dock, no running applications? It is not a mirror copy of your main display?

bobtomay said:

I have only seen that occur when dragging a window to the wrong side of the primary display. The only side of the screen you can drag a window to the second screen is the same side it allows you to move the cursor to that screen. It is going to hit a wall if you try to use any of the other 3 sides of the screen.

The 2nd screen - it is in extended desktop mode? That is it shows your desktop and nothing else on that screen - no menu bar, no dock, no running applications? It is not a mirror copy of your main display?

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct, the second monitor shows the normal Apple "Space View" background. The Mac has a photo as the back ground, two different backgrounds and they are not mirrored.