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I know a little about the cool Amiga OS feature of dragging down the screen so one can have apps running behind the main workbench screen.

But, how does one drag apps, or make apps, run on other screens?

Is it just 1 screen behind the main workbench screen you have access to or is there more than 1? And how do you get to the others?

I would like to say have DOPUS running on 2nd screen and say maybe an email app and other office style things to run on a 3rd screen of that is even an option.

I see where I can highlight an icon and get info on it, then select icon where I see it has option to open on workbench or shell or arexx, but that is where it ends for me.

I see a SCREENS pref that maybe I supposed to setup a 2nd screen???

Thanks for any help.

TJ

EDIT: Been trying to play with the SCREENs pref but changes made do not save. Anyway, here is what I am experiencing.

Screens Pref it is not allowing me to USE or SAVE my screens.

I click the ADD button and between the <<>> in the NAME field I type a new name, Dopus as an example, then over in TITLE field I put the same Dopus, click SAVE, the Prefs window goes away but the new name I made is gone when I go back into SCREENS. It is now showing NEW SCREEN.

Why is it now saving my new names?

tj

If an application has a custom screen setting then this is possible. This function is within menus or sub-meus of the specific software and some software that uses a custom screen by default can be changed to use other custom screens for occassions when you want things to all open on the WB screen for example. The true beauty of a custom screen is it allows different resolutions with different colour palettes.

You can even create custom screens using 3rd party software or even MUI but this type of thing could be considered more for the advanced user and only when you're trying to accomplish something specific. I remember back in the day when I used to mud I wanted to have a 2 colour shell so I could telnet into muds with just 2 colours to speed up the updating. I created a 2 colour custom screen then made it the default screen (instead of WB) and when I double clicked a shell it created a 2 colour shell... crazy eh...

Go into internet/ptfp drawer and execute this program (close a couple of the windows it opens about SSL and remote connection) now you can see this is a form of a custom screen but possibly not a true one. Since it probably uses the WB palette and resolution but it covers the entire screen. If you select the top edge you can drag it down and back up if you click in the top right you can cycle between this scree and WB.

AmiPDF is like this too etc

If you go into DirOpus and select configuration and then select screen, then screen mode, you see how it lists Workbench:Use if you select one further up the list say 1024x768 that will create a true custom screen and if you iconised DirOpus it would take a second or so for the Workbench screen to reappear in its set resolution (for me that is 1680x1050) If you restored DirOpus it would take another second and open in its custom window running at 1024x768

Hope that doesn't confuse the heck out of you

I have to some times remember how old school I am LOL

Not too sure about the screen prefs but I assume it's something like the MUI screen features.

In short summary, if a program does not have a custom screen setting then it will always open on the default screen (which is usually the workbench screen) unless you set it otherwise via software.

Everything else will open in it's own screen OR the screen it's directed too whether that is default or not because it has this functionality.

I hope someday SCREENS Prefs will be reworked. There are a few things which should be changed and/or added IMHO.

ReAction should implement a "jump to screen" feature like MUI (eventho I, personally dislike MUI)

Also, I'm not sure if it's Screens-Prefs tools fault, but If you exchange a monitor (like going from a 1280x1024 to a 1920x1080),
all your screen settings have to be set again. Even if both monitors support the same set of resolutions.

And the same thing happens if you check/uncheck the "Detect settings automatically" checkbox for your Monitor in ScreenMode preferences. It would be nice if a ScreenMode could have some kind of ID, so if the list of available ScreenMOdes get's scrambled (i.e. the position is moved up or down), a setting/screenmode with the same properties could be used instead without the need to redefine every single screenmode.

Amigo1 wrote: Also, I'm not sure if it's Screens-Prefs tools fault, but If you exchange a monitor (like going from a 1280x1024 to a 1920x1080),
all your screen settings have to be set again. Even if both monitors support the same set of resolutions.

It does seem useless for programs to remember screen settings by ModeID when those ID's are subject to change when you switch monitors or alter the resolutions available on your monitor. I've overcome this problem in Screens-Prefs by setting all my "Screens preferences/GUI" settings to "Like WorkBench" and the "Screens preferences/Display/Screen Mode/Apply" to "Never". If the WorkBench screen is correct then all the screens set in Screens-Prefs will be too.

xenic wrote:I've overcome this problem in Screens-Prefs by setting all my "Screens preferences/GUI" settings to "Like WorkBench" and the "Screens preferences/Display/Screen Mode/Apply" to "Never". If the WorkBench screen is correct then all the screens set in Screens-Prefs will be too.

I've tried your solution, but it doesn't appear to work. After setting the relevant Screens preferences, I changed Workbench's ScreenMode to something different, but (RA) OWB didn't use Workbench's new ScreenMode. I'm also not convinced that your settings could do what you claim either...

@amigasociety
IMHO the answers given so far have been too abstract & a bit difficult to follow. Better to give a concrete example...

If you are using the old (ReAction) OWB:
1. Start Sys:System/Prefs/Screens.
2. Click on the Add button. For "Name", replace "<<New screen>>" with "WebBrowser" (without quotes!).
3. Make sure that "Open/close automatically" it ticked!
4. Switch to the GUI tab, and change Settings to "Like Workbench".
5. Switch to the Palette tab, and change Settings to "Like Workbench".
6. Click on Save.

7. The rest of these instructions is somewhat specific to OWB, and other programs may require different methods (e.g. from the program's GUI).
8. Left click on OWB's icon, then choose Icons/Information...
9. Switch to the Icon tab, and add a new line saying this:
PUBSCREEN=WebBrowser

10. Click Save.
11. Now run OWB. It should try to use a public screen called "WebBrowser". OS4 will look for that in it's preferences, and if one was defined then it will created it according to those preferences.


If you are using the new (MUI) OWB:
1. MUI has it's own different way of doing things (unfortunately), so this applies to all MUI programs.
2. Start OWB.
3. Open OWB's MUI preferences, either by:
(a) choosing the menu Settings/MUI..., or
(b) pressing MUI's special menu border icon (which is the left-most icon in the windows's top-right corner) & choosing MUI settings...
4. Switch to the Screen "tab".
5. Click the New button. For Name, replace "(unnamed)" by "WebBrowser" (without quotes!).
6. Click Use button.
7. With the "WebBrowser" screen still selected, click the Save button.
8. OWB should now move it's window to your new screen.


BTW, in the old days (before OS4), if you wanted a program to open on a screen, you had to ask that program (from it's menu or GUI) to open & use a specific Screenmode. You may find programs that still behave like this. The upside is that this is rather simpler, but the downside is that it is difficult to get several programs to open on the SAME screen. I hope that OS4 makes improvements to make it simpler to use, without loosing it's new flexibility...

ChrisH wrote:

xenic wrote:I've overcome this problem in Screens-Prefs by setting all my "Screens preferences/GUI" settings to "Like WorkBench" and the "Screens preferences/Display/Screen Mode/Apply" to "Never". If the WorkBench screen is correct then all the screens set in Screens-Prefs will be too.

I've tried your solution, but it doesn't appear to work. After setting the relevant Screens preferences, I changed Workbench's ScreenMode to something different, but (RA) OWB didn't use Workbench's new ScreenMode. I'm also not convinced that your settings could do what you claim either...

I double-checked and you're right. It doesn't always work. It seems to depend on the application that is opening the screen. I think another option should be added to the Screen mode block in the Screens Preferences Display tab. A "Like Workbench" option should be added for Screen modes.

xenic wrote: I think another option should be added to the Screen mode block in the Screens Preferences Display tab. A "Like Workbench" option should be added for Screen modes.

I agree with you on that.

xenic wrote:It does seem useless for programs to remember screen settings by ModeID when those ID's are subject to change when you switch monitors or alter the resolutions available on your monitor.

What I was trying to say is, it should recognize same screen modes.
For example:

Let's assume you have a checkmark on the "Detect settings automatically" checkbox and the "All supported modes" radio button selected in "SYS:Prefs/ScreenMode preferences/Monitors". The "Available Screenmodes Tab then list the following modes:
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1920x1080
(all of them in their respective CLUT8, RGB16, ARGB32 variant)

let's further assume you have set WB to 1920x1080 ARGB32 and also set the same resolution for OWB's own screen.
Now uncheck the "Detect setting automatically" in the "Monitors-Tab" and make sure "1920x1080 ARGB32" is available and check marked.
Reboot your machine.
What happens here is, Workbench is still correctly displayed in 1920x1080 while OWB refuses to open it's own screen, and the settings in SYS:Prefs/Screens for each entry in de "Defined screens list" is emptied.

Reverting back to "Detect settings automatically" and fast-rebooting the OS, refills the screenmode settings for each entry in the list and OWB opens in it's own screenmode again.

So again, what I was trying to say was: I would welcome if Screen Prefs could detect similar(?)/same screenmodes. I hope this expressed my thoughts and enhancement proposal in a clearer manner.

P.S. And btw a similar behavior is shown when swapping two entries manually in the Tooltypes of the Monitor icon, or if simply adding an entry at the end of the tooltypes.

xenic wrote: I think another option should be added to the Screen mode block in the Screens Preferences Display tab. A "Like Workbench" option should be added for Screen modes.

Yeah, I've wanted something like that for a long time.