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Playing a Movie on a Second Display

With a two-display setup with dual display support, you can play a movie on one display while working in another application on the other display. This arrangement is useful for presentations.

Make sure Mirror Displays is not selected. (Open System Preferences, click Displays, and click Arrangement. If you don't see an Arrangement button, your computer does not support this feature.)

To play a movie on a second display:

  1. Open a movie in QuickTime Player.
  2. Choose View > Present Movie.

    The two displays are shown side by side; one contains the menu bar. A "Q" appears on the display on which the movie will play. To play the movie on the other display, click it.

  3. Choose an option from the pop-up menu.

    To play the movie without displaying the QuickTime Player controls, choose Full Screen.

  4. Select Movie or Slideshow mode.

    In slideshow mode, you can advance frames by clicking the mouse or pressing the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key.

  5. Click Play.

You can open other applications while the movie is playing. To make another application active, press Command-Tab. You can now use the mouse and keyboard in other applications while the movie continues to play.

To stop the movie before it ends, press Command-Tab to make QuickTime Player active, and then click the mouse.

All QuickTime movie playback keyboard shortcuts are available in full-screen mode.