Impress multiple display support

Impress Multiple Display Support

This is the current status of the implementation of Impress simple multiple display specification for issue 12719.

For Developers Only

There is a patch available on the bug which will enable using a different monitor on Windows inside vcl. If somebody desperately needs this functionality, they could possibly start from there and produce a build that has no user interface to control the output, but always shows the presentation on the secondary display. Note that no such build currently exists...

There are some stabs at patches for a UI, but that needs more specification work.

For Users

Although Impress itself doesn't provide multiple display support, Windows XP (probably 2000 as well, but I'm not able to check) has the required functionality built-in. Alternatively, extra software can be installed.

Workarounds

Two solutions are described below.

1. Adjust Graphics Preferences (tested on Win XP with a dual head nVIDIA card)

These instuctions are based on a setup running dual monitors as separate entities where the desktop spans both, but they can have independent resolutions (rather than configuring both as one big monitor).

• From the desktop, right-click and select 'Properties' and then 'Settings'. You should then see displays '1' and '2' represented as graphics.

• Click on display '2' and check the box marked 'Use this device as the primary monitor'. 'Apply' the settings, check that things output as expected on monitor '2' (and at the correct resolution*). You should find that Impress presentations now run on display 2.

• If everything is fine, click 'OK' to exit display properties. Otherwise see note below.

• *NB: The first time I tried this on my system, the screen 2 display was initially incorrect (changed to incorrect resolution and aspect ratio, even though this was not indicated by the settings). So for it to work correctly, the fix was [after following steps above]:
  • Change monitor '2' to a lower resolution and 'Apply'
  • Change monitor '2' back to the desired resolution and 'Apply'
  • Then 'OK' to exit display properties

Following a re-boot, everything worked as expected when changing primary monitor, so it was either an intermittent or one-off problem.

2. Install Additional Software

This solution is useful if you want more flexibility over taskbar placement.

You can dispay presentations on a different monitor wihtout requiring Microsoft Office by combining Microsoft's free-as-in-beer PowerPoint Viewer and multimon. A For this to work you will need to save your presentation in Microsoft's proprietary PowerPoint format (.PPT).

• Download PowerPoint viewer from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&displaylang=en (or search for PowerPoint viewer if that no longer works) and install
• Download multimon from http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm and install
• Start multimon
• Right click on the multimon task bar (that appears on the secondary display), and select Properties
• Tick "Auto Hide" and "Use Ctrl-Alt Arrows", and untick "Insert Caption Button" and "Add Multi-Text Clipboard"
• Start PowerPoint viewer and select the presentation. It will appear on the primary screen
• With the presentation window focused (in the foreground), press Ctrl-Alt-Right and it will move to the secondary display
• You can then proceed as normal.

Note: The multimon web page says Ctrl-Shift, but its Ctrl-Alt. Ctrl-Alt-Left will move it back.