Can I stop El Capitan hiding part of a window when dragging it between monitors?

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Well, the thread title says it in a nutshell.

I have a 2-monitor setup. Recently I graduated from Snow Leopard to El Capitan. Under Snow Leopard, when you drag a window from one monitor to the other, it remains fully visible throughout. To me, this behaviour makes perfect sense. It wasn't broke and didn't need fixing. Indeed, I found it useful. Occasionally, as the need arose, I could leave a window "in the middle", spanning the junction between the two monitors.

In designing El Capitan, some bright spark with a fertile imagination and far too much time on their hands decided that as you drag a window across, half of it will go semi-transparent, and if you drop the window so that it crosses the divide between monitors, half of it will disappear entirely, only re-appearing once the thing is fully in the other monitor. Whoever it was probably got extra sprinkles on their cappuccino for that little doozy.

Is there any way I can switch off this behaviour? A set of command-line instructions I could implement, perhaps? If it's not fixable, I'll just grit my teeth and live with it, but I'd prefer not to!

Many thanks,
Ken :)
 
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MBAmtloin

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El Captain has a feature were right-clicking the green full screen dot allows 2 programs to be present side by side.
it's kinda tricky were you need to see a transparent box, then drag that to a screen and the open app are on the other, only with apple programs tho.
have we tried that?
 
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Thanks for the response, MBAmtloin.

Intriguing... that's not happening on my machine. If I right-click the green maximise button, I just get the toolbar drop-down menu:

Screen Shot 2020-02-13 at 12.24.53.png
 
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MBAmtloin

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Screen Shot 2020-02-13 at 8.03.41 AM.png
you need to hold down for a couple of seconds, this is high sierra but should work in El Cap
 
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After a bit of noodling about, I think I've managed to achieve what you're talking about. I've found that instead of a right-click, if I hold down the ALT key and left-click, any given window sorta widens itself to fill the screen. I'm not sure how this relates to my original query, though: stuff still partially disappears when dragged across the boundary between monitors. Thanks for the suggestion, though - it's always useful to learn something new!

I suspect that forcing the OS to behave like Snow Leopard would involve a fair bit of tinkering under the hood with command line.
 

pigoo3

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In designing El Capitan, some bright spark with a fertile imagination and far too much time on their hands decided that as you drag a window across, half of it will go semi-transparent, and if you drop the window so that it crosses the divide between monitors, half of it will disappear entirely, only re-appearing once the thing is fully in the other monitor. Whoever it was probably got extra sprinkles on their cappuccino for that little doozy.

Is there any way I can switch off this behaviour?

No disrespect intended...but when you jump FIVE OS versions (Snow Leopard to El Capitan)...many many things can change...and an open minded attitude should be maintained while a user "gets up to speed" with the new OS version.:) What was mentioned in the quote above sounds like someone who thinks they know everything...and automatically assumes they are correct & Apple has made an error.;)

Fortunately if the older multi-display "system" with Snow Leopard is preferred by some users...this can be accomplished very easily. Or if the newer multi-display system is preferred by some users...good to go here as well.:)

Let me explain the major differences:

1. With the older multi-display "system"...the macOS treated all of the displays attached to the same computer like they were one-single ginormous desktop. This setup can be very very useful for graphic designers who prefer to view an image or graphic as close to it's native resolution as possible (have that iimage/graphic span the multi-display real estate). Or maybe someone who's working with a really large Excel spreadsheet...and wants to have as many spreadsheet rows & columns visible as possible...and has a single spreadsheet window "stretched/enlarged" across the multiple displays.

2. With the newer multi-display "system"...which was introduced with macOS 10.7 "Lion" (just one OS version after Snow Leopard 10.6)...users have the choice to use the older system or a newer system. With the newer multi-display "system"...there are benefits. The main benefit regarding multi-displays with the newer system is...each display in a multi-display arrangement can be setup to act like it's own space (each display can act like a single display)...and in the process of doing this...each display gets it's own menu bar (in the older multi-display system only one of the displays had a menu bar).

"What is the advantage to this?"...someone may ask. The great advantage to this is...someone can have Safari open on Display A...and have Microsoft Excel open on Display B. Display A's menu bar will have all the drop down menu's appropriate for Safari...and Display B's menu bar will have all appropriate drop down menu's appropriate for Excel.

A 2nd smaller advantage of the newer system...a user doesn't always have to go back to Display A to use the menu bar if they are working on Display B (with the older system only Display A or Display B had a menu bar).

How does someone switch between the "older & newer" multi-display system?:

- Apple Drop Down Menu
- System Preferences
- Mission Control
- Select or deselect the "Displays have separate Spaces" option.
- Then need to log out & log back in to make the changes.

Mission Control.png

The bottom line is...both multi-display systems (older & newer) have their advantages...and the "system" chosen by the user is most likely dependent on what they're doing.

HTH,:)

- Nick

p.s. I completely understand the frustration when moving from an older OS to a newer OS. This change (and possibly some frustration) can be greatly enhanced when the jump is 5 OS versions!;)
 
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No, Nick, not someone who thinks he knows everything - just someone who knows what he likes. :D

Thank you for your help. I have now regained my lost functionality.
 

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No, Nick, not someone who thinks he knows everything - just someone who knows what he likes. :D

Thank you for your help. I have now regained my lost functionality.

Good deal.:)

Hopefully we're not dealing with a "Can't teach old dogs new tricks" situation!:giggle

But seriously...both ways of handling multiple displays have their positives.:)

- Nick
 

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