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BigBadBiologist · Jul 25, 2007, 08:23 AM

I have a MBP with a Dell 2001FP connected to the DVI port. I was wondering if it is possible to get the menu bar to be put on both screens. It is a pain in the butt to go from one screen to the next to do things like open files and whatnot when so much of an applications functions are in the menu bar.

C.A.T.S. CEO · Jul 25, 2007, 08:44 AM

Sadly, no. You can't have the menubar span both screens

JonoMarshall · Jul 25, 2007, 09:34 AM

Not ever ever..?!?!

Sherman Homan · Jul 25, 2007, 09:37 AM

Nor the Dock, nor the Desktop picture. There are hacks, but your machine will become a bomb factory. It just ain't fair.

reader50 · Jul 25, 2007, 09:50 AM

Could you list those hacks? With me it's the Dock. Three monitors, and the Dock confines itself to one.

Chuckit · Jul 25, 2007, 09:59 AM

You might try DejaMenu. It doesn't actually give you a menu bar, but it gives the same functionality.

Sherman Homan · Jul 25, 2007, 10:21 AM

reader50, I dug around and tried to find the utility that allowed the Dock to stretch. But I can't find it. Here is all I remember, in the early days of OS X I played with it and it caused endless Finder crashes that only trashing com.apple.finder.plist would fix. This was before Archive and Install so you had to reformat if you needed to reinstall. I still have a Mac with the OS X, System 9 and Data partitions. I have lost track of the utility, no great loss. Although, I am surprised that no one has created a new Dock and Screen picture utility.

Chuckit · Jul 25, 2007, 10:36 AM

I think most people who want multiple docks probably use DragThing.

peeb · Jul 25, 2007, 11:08 AM

The menu bar thing sucks - I hope they fix it in Leopard.

VTJustinB · Jul 26, 2007, 08:32 AM

I cannot imagine why you'd want to do this. It'd be purely aesthetic, unless you really wanted to go all the way to the right corner of the other monitor to access the task bar and the like.

If all you want is the look of the bar on the second monitor why not do a screenshot and edit the 2nd monitor's wallpaper to have a menubar in it.

analogika · Jul 26, 2007, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by VTJustinB

I cannot imagine why you'd want to do this. It'd be purely aesthetic, unless you really wanted to go all the way to the right corner of the other monitor to access the task bar and the like.

That made absolutely NO sense at all.

He wants the menu bar on both monitors precisely BECAUSE he doesn't want to go all the way to the other monitor.

And what's this bizarre business about "right corner", "task bar and the like"?

seanc · Jul 26, 2007, 08:58 AM

What would be nice was if the dock spanned 2 screens, or there were two identical ones on each monitor but for the menu bar, there would be a separate one for each screen and each one would display the menus for the running program on the respective screen.

Chuckit · Jul 26, 2007, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by analogika

That made absolutely NO sense at all.

He wants the menu bar on both monitors precisely BECAUSE he doesn't want to go all the way to the other monitor.

And what's this bizarre business about "right corner", "task bar and the like"?

I think Justin is imagining the menu bar stretching over several monitors all the time rather than each monitor having its own menu bar (or perhaps the menu bar following the user around). The "task bar" he's referring to is the area where menu extras go.

analogika · Jul 26, 2007, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by seanc

What would be nice was if the dock spanned 2 screens, or there were two identical ones on each monitor but for the menu bar, there would be a separate one for each screen and each one would display the menus for the running program on the respective screen.

different workspaces per monitor!

seanc · Jul 26, 2007, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by analogika

different workspaces per monitor!

That's a better way of putting it

Visnaut · Jul 26, 2007, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by seanc

What would be nice was if the dock spanned 2 screens, or there were two identical ones on each monitor but for the menu bar, there would be a separate one for each screen and each one would display the menus for the running program on the respective screen.

That's just not possible with the current desktop paradigm on Mac OS X.

The menubar displays the menus for the front-most app. It doesn't matter how many monitors you have, you can only have one front-most application at a time.

peeb · Jul 26, 2007, 10:28 AM

Right, but the issue is that if the front most app is on an external monitor, the task and menubar is still on the main screen. To get to the menubar, I have to move screens. I wish the task and menubar could follow the front most app to whichever screen it was on.

seanc · Jul 26, 2007, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Visnaut

That's just not possible with the current desktop paradigm on Mac OS X.

The menubar displays the menus for the front-most app. It doesn't matter how many monitors you have, you can only have one front-most application at a time.

I know it's not currently possible, but it would be nice to see in future releases of OS X. Analogika hit the nail on the head with 'different workspaces for each monitor'. Perhaps in Leopard you'll be able to assign a workspace to a monitor and be able to view both at the same time, hence having a menu bar on both screens for each space.

Originally Posted by peeb

Right, but the issue is that if the front most app is on an external monitor, the task and menubar is still on the main screen. To get to the menubar, I have to move screens. I wish the task and menubar could follow the front most app to whichever screen it was on.

The idea of the menubar following the current app. on a certain screen is interesting, I think it would get a bit confusing though. Is your idea to have a blank menubar on the screen that it not currently being used or just a gap without the menubar? I think having a gap and the menubar flicking about would be annoying but the menus flicking between the two white bars may be do-able.

The option to have a separate workspace per monitor is available in Linux, with menubars on each screen, so I see no reason why it couldn't be implemented eventually.

peeb · Jul 26, 2007, 12:15 PM

My suggestion was to have a menubar on each screen, perhaps operating the same way the 'hidden' dock does - appearing when you move to the top of the screen, or there full time. Even with two menubars (mirrors of each other) you would only ever be able to touch one at a time, because there is only one pointer.

Judge_Fire · Jul 26, 2007, 02:21 PM

I personally enjoy the DejaMenu method of solving this problem.

Less travel distance that way, since the menu appears where your pointer is. There are tradeoffs, such as losing the infinite height of the top menu bar and having the menu items in a vertical list makes them smaller targets, but there is something to this.

jmiddel · Jul 27, 2007, 03:45 PM

Chuckit, thank you for the tip on DejaMenu, just downloaded it, this is a great help

chillenious · Aug 19, 2007, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

The menu bar thing sucks - I hope they fix it in Leopard.

+1. Without the option to clone the menu, using multiple monitors for anything else than giving demos/ presentations is simply aweful.

adamfishercox · Aug 19, 2007, 04:34 PM

In Leopard, They should let you assign Spaces to different monitors.

msuper69 · Aug 19, 2007, 05:35 PM

Turn on display mirroring.