Annoying! 2nd Monitor Covers Menus?

Grazie wrote on 5/25/2005, 9:59 PM
Anybody finding the really useful 2nd Monitor getting to COVER the FX or Pan/Crop?

1/- I have to STOP what I'm doing - BAD mistake!

2/- Go into Prefs

3/- Deslect the 2nd Monitor option

4/- Select External or none

5/- Do my thing with FX or Pan/Crop [ IF I've remembered! ]

6/- Go into Prefs [ this is the second time ]

7/- Reselect 2nd monitor

. ... stare outta window at tree and think what I was doing before?!?

Anybody else finding this? Anybody got a solution to this "2nd Monitor Tango"? I just realised that I was doing this and wondered what was hurting!?! Twit! Ask the Forum!

Tell you what would be neat. Smart Docking! Or Smart . . .

"Let's find a piece of free workspace for Grazie to operate these menus/panes on and "

Well good people?

Grazie

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 5/25/2005, 10:25 PM
So if you insist on using the second monitor feature and leaving tools over there as well then maybe you really need a third monitor.

The second monitor feature uses a video overlay. Oddly enough, the overlay lays over everything else. Imagine!

Now, imagine you had a small HDTV with DVI input. This feature ought to work well for that because you could send a full screen image out to it. Now there's a really good use for the feature.

Grazie, I know I'm being a little sarcastic about this so let me humble myself with a related annecdote. Normally I work with photoshop on the left screen and use the right screen for various popups. One day I switched the primary monitor from right to left (in the control panel) and found that all those popup tools were opening off in some imaginary monitor space that I couldn't see. (Mind you, I didn't figure this out right away. For a while I just thought the tools weren't opening).

So, dual monitors can get confusing, and they don't always work the way you wanted them too. Sorry you're frustrated.

Oh, and it's things like this that make me appreciate some of the more clever window managers to be found in Linux (and it's why I think standardizing on KDE isn't such a great thing after all). Many of the window managers have lots of great options for smart window placement.

Rob Mack
farss wrote on 5/25/2005, 10:26 PM
Cannot one just dock the FX thing somewhere convenient?
Sorry I'm not running 6 here so that maybe a dumb suggestion.
I'm assuming you have two monitors also, I certainly didn't have this issue the few times I've been able to get 'back' to V6.
Bob.
rmack350 wrote on 5/25/2005, 10:32 PM
The inconvenience comes from having windows that are currently closed but whose last position was on the second screen. Before setting up second monitor preview you'd want to make sure everything opens on screen one. It's a hassle to do it after the fact.

Once you get all the windows back over to screen one you should have Vegas memorize the layout

Rob Mack
Grazie wrote on 5/25/2005, 10:49 PM
rmack350 - thanks for the intelligent and informed answer and the superb tutorial on the meaning of overlays - great stuff! And yes, stumbling on this, Photoshop for you, Vegas 6 for me . . we are all learning something I guess. No harm there eh?

Bob - thanks for the observation, but as had been said, these menus just fly under the 2nd monitor preview.

Is there a way I can set these sub menus to be placed as a result of invioking a ALT+D option? Meaning, say I press Alt+D+7, then WHEN I use Pan/Crop or FX they appear front and centre on Monitor 1? I could just use Alt+D+7 for FX and Pan/Crop? Just a thought.

TIA,

Grazie

farss wrote on 5/25/2005, 10:58 PM
Only a guess here but I think if you want it to reliably open somewhere it needs to be docked, not floating in the middle of the screen.
How are you running the second monitor?

Is it configured as a Vegas preview monitor, a Windoz second screen or as part of a Windoz extended screen?
rmack350 wrote on 5/26/2005, 9:41 AM
I think Vegas remembers the position of everything so you could set an alt-d preset and it ought to work.

You may be using a graphics driver that attempts to intelligently reposition windows and popups. Matrox drivers do this, Nvidia does it, I assume that ATI drivers do it as well. This repositioning may be fighting with Vegas.

Some of this may depend on which screen is really your primary monitor. In my case I have screen 2 defined as the primary monitor. The driver utility may try to move child windows over there automatically.

Rob Mack