Author Topic: FARR plugin: FARR Multi Monitor (and center and resize) 1.1.0 (Read 71,208 times)

phitsc · « **on:** June 20, 2008, 10:41 AM »

Description
The FARR MultiMonitor plugin extends FARR to work better with multiple monitors. FARR's main window currently always shows up on the monitor you moved it to. With the FARR MultiMonitor plugin enabled, FARR's main window will show up on the monitor that contains the currently active window (usually the window of the application you're working in, and also where you're currently looking at) or on the monitor where the mouse currently is.

Additionally, the FARR MultiMonitor plugin can center FARR's main window on the screen.

Download & Install
Download the FarrMultiMonitor installer linked at the bottom of this post, then double-click FarrMultiMonitorSetup.exe to start the installation. I've tested the installer on both Windows XP and Windows 7 32-bit. If you'd rather install the plugin manually, you can also download it from the bottom of this post, then unzip it into the FARR plugins directory (usually C:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins) and restart FARR.

Options
Note that the plugin offers a couple of options which can be set in the FARR advanced plugin options dialog. There's a brief description of these options in the readme file. Also note that the center option is off by default.

Hotkeys
Win + Left : move FARR window to monitor on the left
Win + Right : move FARR window to monitor on the right
Win + Home : center FARR window
Win + Ctrl + 1 .. 0 : resize FARR window to 10% .. 100% of current screen's width

Version history
1.1.0 - 10. May 2009
- added option to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's height when it's activated (make sure to disable FARR auto-shrink option)
- added hotkeys Win + Ctrl + Shift + 1 .. 0 to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's height

1.0.0 - 28. April 2009
- added option to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's width when it's activated
- added hotkeys Win + Ctrl + 1 .. 0 to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's width

0.3.0 - 13. October 2008
- fixes 'displaying FARR on monitor with active window doesn't work anymore'

0.2.0
- added support for moving to next/last monitor and centering with hotkeys

0.1.0
- added option to display FARR on monitor where mouse is, instead of on monitor with active window
- added option to center FARR window only when it appears
- fixed DLL unload problem
- added .dcupdate file

0.0.0.1
- initial release

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** June 20, 2008, 10:43 AM »

holy cow what a cool thing to do. going to try it now.
to tell the truth i wouldn't have even thought this was possible so it will be fun to see if it can work.

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** June 20, 2008, 10:47 AM »

it works

damn that is cool.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** June 20, 2008, 10:48 AM »

something to think of for future:
option to shown on desktop where mouse is (and maybe default to this if no active window?)

and perhaps a sub-option for centering:
[] only center when initially appearing (current method keeps re-centering as the window changes sizes)

phitsc · « **Reply #4 on:** June 20, 2008, 12:09 PM »

Quote from: mouser on June 20, 2008, 10:47 AM

it works

damn that is cool.

Thanks mouser

Quote from: mouser on June 20, 2008, 10:48 AM

something to think of for future:
option to shown on desktop where mouse is (and maybe default to this if no active window?)

and perhaps a sub-option for centering:
[] only center when initially appearing (current method keeps re-centering as the window changes sizes)

The problem with centering when initial appearing is that when FARR pops up, the result list is empty at first, before the launch history is added. This means that the final window (with launch history added) would be below the center, because centering would take place with an empty results list. I solved this problem for me by introducing the Threshold feature.

The Threshold feature works as follows:
I have my FARR set to show me a max. of 7 entries in the normal results list. On my installation, this makes the results list appr. 290 pixels high (to find out, make a screen shot with Alt + PrintScreen and paste into Paint for example). Setting the threshold now to something like 275 pixels causes the centering to only take place, if the FARR window expands or shrinks by more than 275 pixels. This is the case when switching from large to small icon results list or vice versa (which is the reason I actually implemented the centering, i.e. to not have FARR stuck to the top of the screen every time it switched to small icon view), as well as on initial appearing.

I could still add the option to center on initial appearing only (resulting in the described effect) or maybe an option to have it 'center' in the upper 1/3 of the screen.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** June 20, 2008, 12:14 PM »

another solution to the dilemna which might be better even for people not using this plugin would be for me to populate the initial contents BEFORE the initial display. that would solve your problem and speed up display as well.

phitsc · « **Reply #6 on:** June 20, 2008, 12:27 PM »

Yes, that would indeed solve my problem and make the ugly threshold option unnecessary.

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #7 on:** June 20, 2008, 05:07 PM »

Quote from: mouser on June 20, 2008, 12:14 PM

populate the initial contents BEFORE the initial display.

Please don't do that. On my system it takes about 1.5-2 seconds for that list to pop up. I would hate to have to wait for that extra every time I open FARR, especially when the item I need isn't going to be on the list.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** June 24, 2008, 02:10 AM »

Can't believe we aren't seeing more "thank you"'s for this plugin since people have requested this feature in the past.. i think they are just not seeing this thread.

ps.
it would be really nice if you could make a .dcupdate file for this, so people could check for updates, and so i could include it with the list of things FARR knows how to install for new users.

nitrix-ud · « **Reply #9 on:** June 24, 2008, 07:44 AM »

you are right mouser !

thank you phitsc

phitsc · « **Reply #10 on:** June 24, 2008, 08:16 AM »

Don't worry mouser. The plugin is useful enough for myself which is why I made it in the first place. Anyway, for anyone else using it: you are welcome

I'll look into creating a .dcupdate file. I guess that means I'll have to install the dc updater

I have the OpenWith plugin working by the way, in a way that it solves my own problem (i.e. open xml files in a text editor instead of in a web browser). This works, because I don't have spaces in the respective file path (in fact, I have one, between Program and Files, but I handled that with a 'variable'). I think the spaces problem is serious enough to withhold the plugin from the public. I thought about having the user substitute the spaces by something else (e.g. _), but that would be cumbersome and not very intuitive (and _ can be in files paths as well).

I'm also experimenting with the Remember the Milk API, thinking about making a FARR plugin for that.

phitsc · « **Reply #11 on:** June 29, 2008, 12:25 PM »

Quote from: CWuestefeld on June 20, 2008, 05:07 PM

Quote from: mouser on June 20, 2008, 12:14 PM
populate the initial contents BEFORE the initial display.
Please don't do that. On my system it takes about 1.5-2 seconds for that list to pop up. I would hate to have to wait for that extra every time I open FARR, especially when the item I need isn't going to be on the list.

No need to do that now, mouser. I found a way around the problem. Centering now works as follows:
- When the FARR window appears for the first time, it is being centered
- When the FARR window changes its size for the first time (with the default items added), it is being centered once again
- And then it is centered no more (unless the option to always center it is enabled)

phitsc · « **Reply #12 on:** June 29, 2008, 12:27 PM »

I've also added a .dcupdate file now by the way.

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** June 29, 2008, 04:20 PM »

cooool

i'll add it to the list of installable plugins with an initial farr install.

phitsc · « **Reply #14 on:** July 03, 2008, 07:22 PM »

I've added some hotkeys to the FARR MultiMonitor plugin. Note that they are currently hard-coded, so if you need these key combinations for something else, you'll have to disable them for the FARR MultiMonitor plugin (in the options dialog).

Hotkeys: move FARR window to next/last monitor or center it with hotkeys
Win + Left : move FARR window to monitor on the left
Win + Right : move FARR window to monitor on the right
Win + Home : center FARR window

The centering is especially useful for FARR MultiMonitor users which are using two monitors with different resolutions (that would be me

). When directory browsing (or when using the 'not yet released' OpenWith plugin) it will usually resize to full height at first. Since FARR only knows about one monitor, and all this happening on the one with the smaller screen resolution, FARRs top will go off the screen, then, narrowing the search, it will shrink, with the top still off the screen.... hit Win + Home, and everything is back to normal

The hotkeys can be used by themselves, too. I.e. you could disable automatic centering when FARR appears and/or moving the FARR window to the active monitor, and just use the hotkeys to center the FARR window and move it around.

phitsc · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2008, 08:01 PM »

What I mentioned in the warning in the initial post now seems to have happened: displaying FARR on the monitor with the active window has stopped working. Not sure with which version of FARR to be honest as I only just noticed today. I've changed the way FARR MultiMonitor finds out which window was the last one active now. This one should be a bit more robust I hope if not please let me know.

Version 0.3.0 now available through your favourite DC software updater.

mouser · « **Reply #16 on:** October 23, 2008, 06:26 AM »

nice

Thanks for the update!

ewemoa · « **Reply #17 on:** April 28, 2009, 03:14 AM »

Now that I've got 2 displays connected to one machine, I finally tried this out.

I particularly like:

Quote

option to display FARR on monitor where mouse is

Nice work, phitsc!

taichimaster · « **Reply #18 on:** April 28, 2009, 04:54 AM »

I also just tried this as well, works great on Vista x64 with 2 monitors. Thanks phitsc!

phitsc · « **Reply #19 on:** April 28, 2009, 07:40 AM »

You guys are very welcome!

FARR MultiMonitor was my first FARR plugin and still is the one I use most. I actually use it every time I open FARR

phitsc · « **Reply #20 on:** April 28, 2009, 07:55 PM »

Now that at least three people are using this plugin (me being one of them

) I thought that justifies putting some more work into it. The FarrMultiMontor plugin can now optionally size the FARR window to a certain percentage of the respective screen FARR is activated on. That by itself might not make too much sense, but I've also added some more shortcut keys to quickly resize the FARR main window to a certain width. The shortcut keys are hard coded to Win + Ctrl + 0 ... 9. 1 ... 9 resize to 10% ... 90% and 0 resizes to 100%. The reason why Ctrl is needed is because Win + Num are used by Windows for the Quick Launch items (which I actually never use).

ryt100 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 28, 2009, 09:31 PM »

I have been using FARR Multi monitor for awhile now. This is cool !!!
Thank you.

ewemoa · « **Reply #22 on:** April 29, 2009, 01:33 AM »

I've updated to 1.0.0 and it seems to work as advertised (including the new hotkeys for resizing horizontally)

I'm not confident of this, but it seemed to me that the hotkeys didn't "take" until after I restarted FARR. Did anyone else happen to notice this?

On a separate note, I've been trying out the "Center FARR when it appears" option. I tried out the "and whenever it changes size" sub(?)-option but found that the FARR window seems to "bounce" as I type subsequent characters. That was a bit much for my heart it seems, so for the moment, I've decided to pass on that, though I'm leaning toward giving the basic option a bit more of a spin

Thanks again, phitsc!

phitsc · « **Reply #23 on:** April 29, 2009, 07:31 AM »

Thanks for your feedback guys!

rbeeger · « **Reply #24 on:** May 10, 2009, 11:12 AM »

Thanks for the update, phitsc.
Thanks for horizontal resizing. Would it be possible to also add vertical resizing?