I wanted a second screen full of text, live updating with each typed character in one of the many windows open on a transcriber’s laptop. Mirroring the two screens is not an ideal option as any changes in focus or use of other apps will show up on the display screen, as will the mouse, etc.

The solution was to install a plugin for sublime text (2) called bufferscroll. Sublime already allows you to open a ‘File > New View into File’ so that you can have the same file open in two windows. bufferscroll goes a step further, letting you sync the cursor position between the two windows. A typewriter mode keeps both windows scrolling with the written text. The second window can then me moved across to a second screen in non-mirror mode. On my old (snow leopard) mac, putting the window in to full screen view in sublime leaves the other screen to be used for typing and swapping to other applications smoothly. In newer macs (lion, etc) an extra sublime option and restart is needed to force this ‘simple’ full screen and not cover the laptop with a dark grey pattern.

sublime settings:

 {
 "font_size": 34.0,
 "save_on_focus_lost":true,
 "use_simple_full_screen": true
 }

bufferscroll settings:

{
 "version": 7,
 /* this allow to sync the scroll of the clones of a view */
 "synch_scroll" : true,

/* The line you work with is automatically the vertical center of the screen. */
 "typewriter_scrolling": true
 }