Why does the figure window with normalized units not open on one screen in MATLAB when using multiple monitors?

When I execute the following command:

figure('units','normalized','position',[0 0 1 1]);

The figure window spans across two or more monitors. It should either open up on the current screen or on the other screen(s).

I also made use of the 'Outerposition' property, but it gives me the same results.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to use 'normalized' units in this manner to position a figure on only one of multiple monitors is not supported.

In some cases, the 'ScreenSize' property of the root object returns the summed width or height dimensions of the monitors. It is in these cases that the figure window may span the monitors, when created with the 'normalized' units.

One possible workaround is to get the coordinates of the screen where you want the figure window to be displayed, by using the undocumented 'MonitorPositions' property of the root object, which can be accessed with:

get(0,'MonitorPositions');

Then you can position the figure using 'pixel' units instead of 'normalized'.

For example, executing the following:

f = figure('units','normalized','position',[0 0 1 1]); 

get(0,'MonitorPositions');

returns:

 1        22  1024  746

 1025   0   1024  768

To position the figure window on the active monitor, use the following command:

set(f,'units','pixels','position',[1 22 1024 746]);

To position the figure window on the secondary monitor, use the following command:

set(f,'units','pixels','position',[1025 0 1024 768]);