Docs / More than one display
More than one display
By default every display is its own world: its own desktops, its own names, its own switching. If you would rather one name cover a desktop on each screen, you can link them, one pair at a time.
The default
Each display keeps its own desktops, its own names and its own switching. Naming a desktop on the laptop screen does nothing to the external one. Switching on one display leaves the other where it is.
A name is unique per display, not across all of them, so the same name can sit on more than one screen. Mail on the built-in display and Mail on the external display are two separate desktops, with two separate notes, shortcuts and automations. Naming desktops covers names, icons and colours in full.
The Board on every display
The Board opens on every display at once, one per screen. Each one shows that screen's own desktops, at that screen's own tile size.
Only one Board takes the keyboard: the one on the display under the pointer. Typing to filter, the arrow keys, the number keys and Return all act there. Move the pointer to the other screen and the keyboard follows it. Escape closes every Board at once, and so does a switch or a click on empty space.
The setting is "Open the Board on every display". Turn it off and you get a single Board, on the pointer's display, with a picker for the other displays. Tab cycles that picker. Everything else the Board does is on the Board page.
Per-display appearance
Tile size, name size, app icon size and app names can each differ per display. A large external screen can carry big tiles while the laptop keeps small ones.
There are two places to set them. The Board's gear, top right, edits the display that Board is on, and has "Use for every display" to apply those choices everywhere. In Settings, On Screen, an "Applies to" picker chooses which display you are editing.
Linked displays
The setting is Settings, Desktops, "Displays: Independent or Linked". Independent is the default, and is what DeskSay has always done.
A link joins a desktop on one screen to a desktop on another. The pair becomes one desktop with one name, one icon, one note, one shortcut and one set of automations. Saying that name, clicking its tile or pressing its number moves both screens at once, the pointer's display first. Measured at 341 to 512 milliseconds for two displays.
Nothing is linked until you link it. Switching the setting to Linked joins nothing by itself, and any desktop you leave alone carries on exactly as before.
Link by dragging a tile
With the Board open on both screens, drag a tile from one screen's Board onto the other screen's Board. Drop it on a desktop to link the two. Drop it on empty space and DeskSay makes a desktop there and links it.
Link from the right-click menu
Right-click a tile and use "Link with a desktop on <display>", which names the other display. The first choice is "New desktop called X", using the name of the tile you right-clicked.
Link in Settings, Desktops
Every desktop is listed with a picker for each other display. A picker reads "Not linked" until you choose from it. There is also a button that links everything already sharing a name on both screens, which is the quickest route if your two displays already use the same names.
How a link looks
A linked tile carries a small link glyph, on both Boards. Hover a linked tile and its partner on the other screen lights up, so you can see what moves with what before you switch.
Ending a link
Unlinking gives each desktop its own name back. Removing the name of a linked desktop ends the link as well.
When a display is unplugged
A link whose other display is unplugged keeps its name and moves only itself. Plug the display back in and the link comes back with it. If the partner desktop is deleted rather than disconnected, the link ends.
Fullscreen Spaces
Fullscreen Spaces are never linked.
What linking needs
"Displays have separate Spaces" must be on in System Settings, Desktop & Dock. With it off, macOS already moves every display together and reports them as one, so there is nothing for DeskSay to link.
If it does not workOpen System Settings, Desktop & Dock and check that "Displays have separate Spaces" is on.