Macs With Two+ Displays: Choose Windows Across Displays or Separate Spaces

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. All you need to know about this one setting, Displays Have Separate Spaces.

So often I hear from Mac users, that have two or more displays connected to their Mac, complain that they can't have a window go from one display to another. The window seems only to be able only to exist on a single display. But there is a setting for this and the setting is hard to find if you don't know what you are looking for. 

So to demonstrate what I mean here I've got two displays. I've got my primary display on the right and here's a Notes window. If I move the note over past the edge here you can see it kind of pop into the other display. But if I release from dragging you can see the left side is not there on the second display. I can move it further over and the left side is still not there. If I bring it all the way over to the other window, so my pointer is actually in the other window, then it is in the left display and the right side is cut off in the middle of the right.  There doesn't seem to be any way to get this window to stay where you see one part of it in one display and one part in another. But there is a setting that does exactly that. It's in System Settings and you go to Desktop & Dock since it deals with how the Desktop works. If you scroll to the bottom of this under Mission Control there is the Displays have Separate Spaces setting. It is just a simple toggle On or Off. It is exactly what controls this behavior. But, of course, you can be excused for not recognizing that this is the setting you need to go to because it is talking about Spaces which is part of Mission Control. 

So, for instance, I'll bring up Mission Control using the default keyboard shortcut, Control Up Arrow. You can use the trackpad gesture if you like. You can see here at the top it shows Desktop 1. Notice how over on my second display on the left it also shows a Desktop there but it is calling that Desktop 2. There are not available windows in that now. Let's go ahead and add another Desktop here on my right side display. You can see now it labels that Desktop 2. Over here we still have Desktop 2 but actually if we leave Mission Control and go back in it is really Desktop 3. So the setting display having different spaces is being very true here. Desktop 1 & 2 are here on the right display and Desktop 3 is on the left display. If I were to put a window, let's say this Pages window here on the left display and go into Mission Control you can see how Pages is here in Desktop 3 on the left display and System Settings is here in Desktop 1 on the right display. There's nothing on Desktop 2. If I move back and forth between desktops on the right side display using Control and the left and right arrows you can see it doesn't affect the left display. The left display just has this one desktop here. I can create another desktop and then it would just between these two on the left side. Each display acts independently and has its own spaces. 

Remember spaces are more than just desktops. If I were to take this window here full screen, like that, you can see now it's a full screen space. So I have two desktop spaces and a full screen space. I can also have two apps in a split view space. So there are three different types of spaces; Desktop, Full Screen, and Split View. But whichever one you're using they exist independently in each display. You can drag a space, like let's say this full screen space, from one screen to the other by clicking and dragging over and now I've moved it over here and you can see now I've got three spaces on the right and two on the left. 

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Well let's take a look at how this works. If you turn Off Displays have Separate Spaces when I do that I get a little message here saying, requires logout. You can't just switch this on and off and have everything change. You have to switch it and then you go to Logout and logout of your account. Then log back in and now you'll see this take effect. So now once I've logged back in you can see now I have Displays have Separate Spaces turned off. So now watch what happens if I take a window like this and I move it between displays. I can leave it there and you can see one half of the window in one display and one half on the other. Now, it is not that useful on an app like System Settings. But let's go into Pages here and with Pages I can move this window over here put it on the left and then drag the bottom right hand corner all the way across the displays and have it appear like that. I can then zoom in and make the text really big if I want. A better example would be in say Numbers. A large spreadsheet with many tables on one display but I can drag the corner here and have it cover both screens like that. You can see now I can see everything. A more typical example would be to use some tool that has lots of parts to the window, like Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro stretched across two displays you can see how I get a lot more real estate in each of the sections here. Since there is a long timeline along the bottom I can see much more of it with two displays. The two displays are right next to each other like you see here it really can make it feel like one long display. Or you can simply use it like this or maybe use it as one apps window covering more than one display but not all the way across them and you still have room for another app, like maybe Notes in a portion of one of the displays.

When you have displays with Separate Spaces turned Off if I bring up Mission Control you can see it comes up for both screens and it just shows a desktop. If I add a second desktop that appears for both screens as well. These act as one long display instead of two separate displays. So if I were to switch desktops using Control Right Arrow and Control Left Arrow you can see how it  exposes each at the same time because they each shares one wide space. So for instance if I were to put System Settings here on my left display and Pages on my right display and switch desktops to the second one you can see how it shows one desktop 1 that has those two windows on it that stitches across two displays and now on desktop 2 which stretches across two displays and has neither one of those windows. 

When you have displays that has Display Separate Spaces turned On you get the Menu Bar on both displays near the main window in System Settings. So I see the Menu Bar with System Settings. Over on the left side the main window is Pages and you can see that the Menu Bar reflects that. So I have two Menu Bars but notice one of them is always grayed out, always inactive because you can only have one front-most window. Like right now it is System Settings and then I can switch over to Pages. This is important, of course, because the Menu Bars determine keyboard shortcuts. So whichever Menu Bar is the active one is the one that will receiver those keyboard shortcuts. 

Likewise with the Dock you get the Dock on either display. So if I were to move my pointer down to the bottom here you can see the Dock pops up at the bottom. If I go to the other display and I go down to the bottom the Dock pops up there. If you go to Dock Settings and then you change it so that the Dock doesn't automatically Hide or Show you can see it is always there. Now getting it to appear on the other side it is a little quicker. It will just change if you move your pointer down to the bottom. 

If you have Displays have Separate Spaces turned off notice the Menu Bar here at the top is only at the top of one display. It is not at the top of the other display at all. Even though you can't actually drag a window across, if you try the Menu Bar on the second display gets in the way like that. I can't push this window through. You have to go down and underneath it. If I try to stretch the video across you can see I can only have this high here and it kind of wastes space at the top. 

To control which display shows the Menu Bar all you need to do is go into Displays and go to Arrange and then here you'll be able to arrange your displays. You are familiar with this if you have two or more displays. You get this mid bar area here at the top. You can drag that around and it will decide which display is the main display, the one that had the Menu Bar. Also the Dock will appear here where the Menu Bar is. So on the display on the right. It won't appear here on the left. The Dock is only on the main display like that. 

Now you can go into Full Screen Mode if Display have Separate Spaces is turned off. But watch what happens if you do. I'll click the green button here and you can see that it is full screen mode on the display where the window was originally. What's on the other display? Nothing. I can move my pointer over to it but it is just black with nothing there. I can turn this off and it goes back to normal. If I were to move this over to this display and go to Full Screen you can see my right side display is now black. Full Screen Mode works but it makes the other display completely blank. It is useful if you want to focus on one app and like just get some writing done. But you have Displays have Separate Spaces turned off because otherwise you're usually editing video and you want things to stretch across screens. So there is a use for it but it doesn't work nearly as well as when Displays have Separate Spaces is On and you can have a Full Screen app on either display. 

Likewise notice there is no Split View here. Split View is not available in this mode. You have to have Displays have Separate Spaces turned On for that. Another thing that is missing is Stage Manager. If you click on Control Center here you'll see Stage Manager missing from it. If you look here in System Settings under Desktop & Dock for Stage Manager you'll see that the toggle is permanently off. It tells you it requires Displays have Separate Spaces to be enabled. 

Here's a chart showing the two different modes and what you can do with each mode. So you basically need to decide which function you want more. You want your window to stretch across multiple displays then you need to turn Off Displays have Separate Spaces. However when you do you loose a lot of functionality. The Menu Bar will only be on one display. The Dock will only be on that one display. You don't have separate spaces across the screens. Just one set of space and you switch both displays at the same time. You also can't use Split View and you can't use Stage Manager. When you do use Full Screen windows it displays only on one display at a time, not both. But then stretching the window across both displays gets you something very close to having full screen across both displays. While it is difficult to switch the settings, you have to log out and then back in, it really doesn't take that long. So if you want to use this every once in a while to edit a bit of video in Final Cut Pro it is not that difficult to switch it, logout and then log back in. Then work for a few hours in Final Cut Pro to finish a project and then switch it back on, logout and log back in, to use your Mac with all your other apps in the regular mode.

Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.