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I have 2 screens on my computer. I often use kmail or any opened Website/Dokument/PDF on my second screen, which I need for the work on my main screen.

The transparency plugin sets all the inactive windows transparent, which is very useful for the overview. I like it. But while Im working on the main screen, all the windows on the second screen are transparent (inactive). So I cant read anything from it, even from the top window. The second screen is nearly useless with activated transparency and "dim inactive" plugins.

My suggestion: The top window of each screen should be "active" for the transparent and the "dim inactive" plugin. Maybe there could be an option in the configuration, how to handle multiple screens.

I use similar feature in compiz - Opacify. It dims active window, if mouse is off that active window.

Another solution, is to set transparency for each window by right click on window border.

To make it more clearly...

1. I open a Dokument/Website or kmail on my second screen, which I need to read while Im working.

2. I open Eclipse on my main screen and work on it. But all the windows on the second screen are transparent and dimmed now. I cant read anything. Because the active window is Eclipse on my main screen.

I dont want to move the mouse over to the second screen every time, when I want to read something.

So what windows exactly do you want to have transparent?

With Opacify *only* active window is transparent *only* when mouse is outside this active window.

This means, all inactive windows is *not* transparent. Active window gets transparent when you leave it with mouse. So if (inactive) window, you are working with is below active window, once you leave it with mouse it gets transparent, so window below is visible, *but* main windows doesn't loose its focus, so you could continue writing as usual.

Just try it

let us assume that the ecplise-window on the main screen is the current active window which Im working on.

main screen:
- active window (eclipse) should be fully visible
- all inactive windows on this screen can be transparent and dimmed
(this is the normal behavior, as we have it now)

second screen:
- the latest active window (the window on the top) should be fully visible
- all the other windows can be transparent and dimmed

So for every screen the latest active window (that includes the current active window) should be fully visible.

Not everyone would like this behavior. But it could be made optionally with the configuration.

Just another example:
You are surfing on the internet on your main screen while you are watching a movie on the second screen. With the behavior as we have it now, you are not able to do both, because the movie-player is shown transparent and dimmed.

Whats the point all those dimmed windows?

dummy wrote:second screen:
- the latest active window (the window on the top) should be fully visible
- all the other windows can be transparent and dimmed

Only the window on the top is going to be readable, others are either covered by top window, either dimmed or both. So whats the point?

Could you paste a screenshot?

Lukas wrote:Whats the point all those dimmed windows?

dummy wrote:second screen:
- the latest active window (the window on the top) should be fully visible
- all the other windows can be transparent and dimmed

Only the window on the top is going to be readable, others are either covered by top window, either dimmed or both. So whats the point?

Thats the behavior how I wish it!

The current behavior of the "transparency/dim inactive windows" plugins is that *only* the active window on the current screen is fully visible. All the other windows are transparent and dimmed, even the top-window of the second screen. And I cant read anything from the top-window on the second screen when its transparent and dimmed.

And thats what I wish... the top window of the second screen should not be transparent and not be dimmed, even if this window is inactive.

I like to have all my inactive windows dimed too because it helps to focus on the active windows but sometimes it is indeed annoying : when I need to read several windows at once or when I play a video or watch tv in a small window while working.

I don't have an ideal solution for this problem though... maybe a checkbox in the title bar icon -> advanced settings -> "ignore XXX effect" ?