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I found a lot of people wanting to hide the dock and I need the reverse, I'm a developer and like to watch youtube (I use chrome) on one of my multiple monitors while I work on the other two monitors (I have three total). And I frequently use windows that need to span multiple monitors which means I HAVE to have the Mission Control option turned off for "Displays have separate Spaces". The problem is when disabling "Displays have separate Spaces" and entering fullscreen youtube the dock and menu are hidden, this makes continuing to work much harder.

So to be clear, I'm looking for:

  1. Dock and menu stay on the screen while youtube is fullscreen on monitor #1
  2. While still keeping the ability to open a single window that can span across monitor #2 and #3.

Someone please save me! Even if I have to purchase and app that addresses this for me!

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  • Why not just maximize the app(s) Instead? Wouldn't that solve the issue? Note that this is coming from a person who always hated the full screen mode and hasn't really ever used it.... Also, why don't you have Displays have separated spaces setting on? Is it because then the spaces in each screen have to be navigated separately? – Joonas Sep 13 '17 at 23:12
  • Maximizing chrome does not increase the size of the video being played and the rest of the monitors completely blank out and can't be used. – Mike Thomas Sep 13 '17 at 23:23
  • Not sure what you mean about the screens blanking out. If my guess about the Displays have separate spaces option is correct, one thing that came to mind was TotalSpaces. It has the ability to sync spaces when Displays have separate spaces is on. Check the red text below DL button though. Another thought was this browser called Fluid. You can essentially full screen a YouTube video in it and hide the interface elements. Maximizing that should be pretty much the same as full screening It. – Joonas Sep 13 '17 at 23:43
  • Also there are chrome extensions that allow you to essentially full screen a YouTube video to the viewport. – Joonas Sep 14 '17 at 0:03
  • When I clicked on the green ball at the top left of the window the browser went full screen on the monitor it was on and the other two monitors scrolled to a black screen. And as I said I can not turn on "Displays have separate spaces", it must remain off. – Mike Thomas Sep 14 '17 at 15:14
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Didn't want to write like 4 comments so here's an answer.

Finally things are starting to make sense. The word fullscreen mixed with Displays have separate spaces option deceived me and kept me in a headspace I couldn't get out off. I was thinking of the OS X fullscreen... We can pretty much forget everything I've said so far.

It is definitely super weird that for you, it is acting the way most people want it to work... and there is seemingly no way to make it work the way it works for you... Yet, here we are.

Since I super don't have a fix for that issue. I'm going to try and offer a workaround.

Workaround:

Like I suggested before, maybe the simplest solution would be a chrome extension. I'd actually maybe recommend Floating Player. Basically opens the video in current page in its own window with only the title bar of the gui remaining.

Then if you resize it to fill the whole screen (maximize it), you should be good to go.

Maximizing a window

Since OS X Yosemite, clicking the green ball on the top left puts the application window in Fullscreen mode. You don't want that. To actually just maximize a window, you need to hold down Opt/Alt when clicking it. Or double click the title bar. This unfortunately is a bit of a mixed bag... Some applications, including Chrome, maximizes the window by making it full height, but not full width. So maybe don't use that either.

The best way to maximize a window or manage window position and size is to use third party applications. I'd recommend you try out Moom. It's definitely one of the best ones out there, if not the best one. If you don't want to pay anything, I'd say the next best free window manager app is probably Spectacle.

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  • Mike, this is the best answer I got. I hope it helps. – Joonas Sep 15 '17 at 9:01
  • Yes Joonas it was incredibly useful!!! I am using a plugin and it's working great for the majority of what I needed, so thank you! And THANK YOU for understanding my issue and explaining that Apple had changed the functionality of the green ball, I had NO IDEA it was now Fullscreen!! The alt-click of the green ball is GREAT to know!!! – Mike Thomas Sep 15 '17 at 16:12
  • @MikeThomas good good – Joonas Sep 15 '17 at 16:19

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