At a desk, the centre of your work might be a large monitor. An hour later it is a MacBook screen at the kitchen table. The notch is present in one setup and absent in the other, but the next attachment still needs sending and the earlier clipboard item still needs finding.
Droppy supports both environments. A notched MacBook can use a surface that grows around its camera cutout, while an external monitor can use a floating Dynamic Island. You choose how much of that surface appears on each screen, and when it should open.
Choose the shape before filling the shelf
Start in Theming. Droppy has separate choices for notched and notchless displays, so the built-in screen and an external monitor do not have to pretend they are the same piece of hardware. The island gives a display without a cutout a compact place to show the surface; the notch treatment can make use of the shape already on the laptop.
Adjust width, height and island position with your normal working windows open. A surface that looks balanced against an empty wallpaper may feel different above a browser with a crowded menu bar. Give it enough room to be easy to reach without letting it become the dominant thing in the composition.
Decide which screens should show it
The Per-display visibility control in Settings lets you choose the connected screens that show Droppy. This is the first useful decision for a desk with more than one monitor: do you want controls on every screen, or only where you tend to work?
The Show on external displays setting also offers Never, When active and Always. Always gives the monitor a resting surface. When active keeps it quieter until there is something to show. Never keeps Droppy on the built-in display. Try these with your real arrangement rather than assuming that more visible surfaces must be more convenient.
For example, if your laptop sits to the side of the main monitor, repeatedly reaching across to it may be irritating. Put Droppy on the main screen. If a second screen mostly holds reference material, leaving that screen clear may feel better.
Set hover behaviour for the distance you travel
On a small screen, the top edge is close. On a large monitor, you may cross it frequently while moving between windows. The same hover delay can feel helpful in one arrangement and too eager in another.
Find Auto-expand in Settings. It controls opening on hover, and Expand on selects the main Mac, external displays or both. The delay gives you a way to distinguish a deliberate pause from a passing pointer. Auto-collapse determines how long the open surface remains after you leave it.
Begin with a modest layout and practise reaching it from the application you use most. If it opens accidentally, adjust the delay before rearranging your whole workspace. If you find yourself waiting every time, shorten it. This is a feel decision, not a setting with one correct value for every desk.
Let the floating tray cover the long distances
The top edge is a good permanent address; it is not always the nearest place to drop a file. That is why the floating file tray matters especially on a large display. Start dragging and shake to bring a tray near the pointer, collect the other files, then move to the destination.
The shelf and Basket can work together. Turn on Sync with basket in Shelf settings, or Sync with shelf in Basket settings, to keep files and removals aligned. You can gather near the cursor and finish from the shelf.
A drag shortcut is another option if shaking is awkward with your pointing device. It replaces the shake and instant-appear triggers with a deliberate key held during the drag. Use the trigger your hands can repeat comfortably.
Keep the tools familiar, not crowded
The shelf can hold a custom arrangement of widgets. A simple combination of media and files is a good starting point when moving between laptop and desktop use: both remain useful regardless of display size. Add a timer, notes or another widget when it serves your work.
Clipboard history has a separate advantage here. A recorded shortcut brings it up from an application, so finding an earlier copy does not depend on how far away the screen edge happens to be. Let the keyboard do that job and use the visible shelf for actions that benefit from a glance or drag.
Make room for presentations and fullscreen work
Visibility controls also cover moments when the screen belongs to something else. Hide on fullscreen hides the notch or island while a fullscreen app is in use. Hide media in fullscreen, under Media, is the narrower choice when only the player should disappear.
You can also hide the surface in Mission Control or use Hold to reveal. Review these options before presenting, particularly if you work with a dense menu bar. They give you a way to keep the tools nearby while deciding when they should be visible to you.
A five-minute desk check
Connect the screens you normally use, open your usual applications, then check one ordinary sequence: gather an attachment, recover a clipboard item, pause music, and enter fullscreen. Repeat on the MacBook alone. Adjust visibility and hover timing wherever the sequence feels awkward.
This guide does not depend on automatic profile switching or a promised rearrangement when you dock. The useful part is simpler: Droppy supports the display shapes you have, and exposes the choices needed to make each one comfortable.