Dashboard, Spaces, Mission Control - how to get rid of it?

[desertman]

Once in a while it happens to me that suddenly certain applications become full screen applications in one of my three monitors and the other two monitors are just gray with some texture in it.

I have no idea how I produce this, what it is, and how to reverse this except for restarting my computer.

I guess it has something to do with Dashboard, or Spaces, or Mission Control - all things that I never user and never want to use, and unfortunately also don't understand.

Right now I have this with a movie that I started to watch in iTunes in one of my monitors. Suddenly I see only the movie and gray. I can get out of this by pressing Escape but I am not able to go "back to normal" - meaning to have the movie in one monitor and all my other stuff in the other monitors. It does not even help to quit iTunes. When I then restart iTunes and restart the movie I am back at full screen and gray.

What am I doing here, how can I understand this better, and how can I control this behavior?

Greetings - desertman

 

[desertman]

I guess I solved the problem - I had unintentionally clicked onto the full screen arrows in the iTunes window. Now I found out that I can reverse this by moving the cursor to the top of the screen and then click onto the arrows again.

Is it possible to disable this full screen functionality completely, for any application?

 

[benwiggy]

This is called Full Screen mode. You can get out of it by:

1. <command><shift> F
2. Moving the pointer to the top, so that the menu bar appears and use the View menu.
3. Escape key often works, too.

It is best not to start hacking apart the OS just cause there's a feature you don't intend to use. You're likely to break some fundamental aspect of the OS, and it will get replaced every system update.

 

[desertman]

You can get out of it by: 1. <command><shift> F

Thanks. Good to know the shortcut - that's probably how I activate it sometimes.

Funny that under certain circumstances this mode even survives quitting and restarting an application - as it did in my case with the iTunes movie window.

 

[maxosx]

Thanks. Good to know the shortcut - that's probably how I activate it sometimes.

Funny that under certain circumstances this mode even survives quitting and restarting an application - as it did in my case with the iTunes movie window.

Apple has excellent videos and text tutorials that are short, that will help you get the most out of your Mac.

Here's a starting point:

http://support.apple.com/videos/

 

[desertman]

Here's a starting point: http://support.apple.com/videos/

Fantastic. If you now could point me to the video that explains the full screen mode - especially the system behind this mode sometimes reverting to normal screen mode when quitting an application that is currently in full screen mode and sometimes not - I would be very thankful to you.

 

[maxosx]

Fantastic. If you now could point me to the video that explains the full screen mode - especially the system behind this mode sometimes reverting to normal screen mode when quitting an application that is currently in full screen mode and sometimes not - I would be very thankful to you.

Here's a resource that I believe may serve you best for the functions you wish to learn.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2030601/why-you-should-use-mountain-lions-spaces.html

 

[Xe89]

especially the system behind this mode sometimes reverting to normal screen mode when quitting an application that is currently in full screen mode and sometimes not

On my Mac only iTunes keeps the full screen mode after quit. Other Apple and third-party application starts in window mode even though they were full screen when I quit them.

Also be aware that some applications like VLC has the "old" full screen mode where the application doesn't get its own Space when full screen, altough you can activate "Lion full screen mode" in the preferences.

 

[Krazy Bill]

If you now could point me to the video that explains the full screen mode - especially the system behind this mode sometimes reverting to normal screen mode when quitting an application that is currently in full screen mode and sometimes not

You are now part of the convoluted mess that Apple calls "Full Screen". Especially with multiple monitors.

My solution is to never use applications in Full Screen mode.