Panels and multiple displays

[jean.jordaan]

I have a laptop and a big Dell monitor. The Dell is above the laptop screen (but for some reason the control panel refuses to allow this, so logically it's below the laptop screen, i.e. the mouse pointer exits the bottom of the laptop screen and enters the top of the Dell monitor).

I have a top and bottom panel, configured to auto-hide.

• - when I move to the bottom of the laptop screen, the panel doesn't stay open (close/open/close/open/close/...).
  - when I move to the top of the Dell screen, the same happens (except the "bottom" panel is showing up at the top, which actually works fine).
  - on the Dell screen, the panel shows only the windows that are open on that screen (good!).
  - if I disable auto-hide, the panel shows only on the laptop display (so I don't get a panel showing only the windows on the Dell screen).
  - if I switch to a side panel, it shows only on the laptop display.

Is it perhaps possible to increase the edge which expands the menu, so that it's practical to expand the panel even though it's on the transition between displays?

I found that it's possible to access the panels using keyboard shortcuts. That will probably be workable, though the selection seems to be a bit funky (cycling between top/bottom/desktop doesn't work like alt-tab). See e.g. http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/45