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Rf 2006-10-14 08:00
Sucking up:
Great software, also appreciate the flexible licensing of 1 per user, many PCs for those of us with 12 PCs, 3 or 4 with dual or better screens it helps!
Kind of did search, so don't flame me for 'dupe!':
Looked around forums and didn't see this, but I haven't really searched to see if this was already in a list of proposed features (list exists?) or if there is already software that does this, but it would be very awesome for this software to do it.
Basis of the problem:
Here is a problem for users with large or widescreen monitors that can handle multiple windows on one screen simultaneously, or that are using an Nvidia setting like Horizontal Span across two monitors which makes them appear to the system as one (advantage of this is having the full screen resolution available to remote programs like VNC that only handle one monitor):
Core of the idea:
These screens are able to accommodate viewing of more than one window at a time, but there is no easy way to move them from one part of the screen to another or to limit them to a particular size when maximizing. So it all has to be done via manual drag/drop and stretch.
It would be very helpful to be able to designate virtual areas to move windows to, and maximize into.
Examples;
Say like splitting down the middle if you have 2 20" LCDs, but set in Nvidia as one 3200x1600 area.
Or if you have a large 24" or maybe a 30" LCD with 2560x1600 area, split these in to 2,3, or 4 areas.
Simplicity hope:
I would hope this would be relatively easy to do.
Don't need to make them like actual virtual monitors for any reason, not like you need or want 4 different backgrounds or 4 different smart taskbars on one screen (watch someone say "oh great idea, I'd love that!" ...). Just something to enable window moves and maximize area restrictions.
As to user interface:
For creation of the areas:
Either through a drag/drop/stretch interface (ie a box outline) done through the program but drawn over the actual desktop/window/screen. Or perhaps as a percentage slider or absolute size with a designation of rows/columns on a monitor, similar to the existing windows alignment of monitors interface. Another possibility would be to make any window to a size and position of liking and then have UltraMon take its x,y coordinates and size and using that to define an area. That would likely be the easiest to implement technically.
Onscreen Overlay/Outline:
There should also be an onscreen overlay/outline of the areas with a solid border, a partial opacity fill (to see overlap clearly) and an identifying number/name/whatever. This would be so you could see/remember where the areas are. These areas should be hotkey enabled just the same as a regular monitor for the purposes of moving windows around.
Show Overlay/Outline on Move:
You could also have it as an option to show this overlay/outline anytime you select a window for move by drag and drop, and then drag the window over an area, which will then highlight and be the selected area to drop it into. Alternately click the move to area/monitor button, have this overlay/outline show, then simply mouse over to an area, which would highlight, then click to move the window there.
Overlapping Areas:
It would also be very nice to have the ability to have overlapping areas of different sizes on the screen, and maximize a window into it depending on which virtual area it is 'more in', similar to how it is done currently in the program.
This would enable someone with a very large 30" screen to designate say 4 smaller areas, one in each corner, but then also say 2 large vertical areas, one on each side and layered on top of the small ones, but inset a pixel or two if desired.
Selection of various layers via mouse:
This inset would enable mouse drag and drop into the large areas by default (top layer), but by mousing to the very edge to drop to the smaller corner ones in a very uncomplicated way. Another suggestion for mouse selection would be to hover over an overlapping area and using arrow keys, or the scroll wheel to cycle through the layers until the one desired is highlighted, it could then be selected. An additional idea to that would be a user selectable time delay and then it would start auto cycling through the layers on that time delay. This would be slower, but perhaps easier for some users.
Selection of various layers/areas via keyboard:
Hotkeys as mentioned, but also should be able to just use arrow keys to cycle through them either in order, or by position on screen (left/right/up/down etc).
Optional Auto Maximize to new area with Toggle Option:
Also helpful would be an option to default auto maximize the window to that area when the window is moved, with perhaps a selectable keyboard toggle key as a temporary enable/disable.
Incorporate new virtual areas into default screen/size/position selection on a per app basis system:
It might also be helpful to designate a space as default for a particular application to open into. I think this functionality is already present in the program to select an app, and save its current position as the default (yes/no? don't use this myself, most of my apps do this on their own). Just suggesting to extend this functionality to incorporate the new virtual areas. Some of this functionality is already present in the applications themselves to remember x,y and size and use the same when they open, not all do however.
Hope to hear you say 'yes definitely on the list for future development' and/or 'already working on this', but I 'spose I'll take your standard "Thanks for the suggestion, will be considered for UltraMon 3." too :-P
Rf
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Christian Studer 2006-10-14 10:35
Thanks for the suggestion, support for this will indeed be considered for UltraMon 3 :)
You could already do this with hotkeys and custom scripts, look for the VMonMaximizeWnd and VMonMoveWnd scripts.
Nvidia's nView Desktop Manager also supports this, they call it display gridlines.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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