I am pissed off right now

[farqueue]

I bought a standard 19inch dell LCD monitor (not widescreen)

How can i make use of my 19inch lcd monitor to fully display and take up all the space. All i get is a widescreen.

The reason i bought this is because i will be using it for looking at long documents.

I have also screwed up the color settings on my macbook. is there a way to default set it?

 

[robbieduncan]

Are you mirroring your MacBook display? Check in the display preferences. If so try turning that off...

 

[Killyp]

I bought a standard 19inch dell LCD monitor (not widescreen)

How can i make use of my 19inch lcd monitor to fully display and take up all the space. All i get is a widescreen.

The reason i bought this is because i will be using it for looking at long documents.

I have also screwed up the color settings on my macbook. is there a way to default set it?

Go into System Preferences, and choose displays. Click ARRANGEMENT, and un-tick the box that says Mirror Displays. The desktop should now be across both screens.

You will now have two seperate display windows. The one on your MacBook screen should have the highest resolution possible, with Colours: set to Millions. The same goes for the Dell display, choose the highest resolution you can and Millions in the colours field.

Hope this helped!

 

[farqueue]

yes. i had them mirrored.

But i dont want my mouse to move across to my smaller 13inch macbook display. I cannot even see the dock! How can i launch apps???

I want a proper desktop where i can work on

 

[Killyp]

Do you have the resolutions set to their highest?

 

[gloss]

If you're wanting to use your external monitor as your main, either drag the little menu bar in the 'Display Arrangements' section of the control panel to the icon representing your Dell, or set your computer up to run in closed-lid mode, which requires a power source and external keyboard and mouse.

 

[farqueue]

yes resolutions to the max. i do want a mirror.
I want the mirror image on my dell 1907FP to use the whole space, and not give me two black strips at the bottom and top.

 

[TBi]

yes resolutions to the max. i do want a mirror.
I want the mirror image on my dell 1907FP to use the whole space, and not give me two black strips at the bottom and top.

Pissed off?


hmmmm...


well, turn off mirroring for a start. Increase the resolution of the external monitor to it's max (1280x1024 i think) then drag the little bar from the little screen representing the macbook screen to the one representing the new screen.

Plug in keyboard and mouse, power and the monitor and close the lid.

The Macbook will go snooze for itself. Use the external keyboard or mouse to wake it up. Voila you'll only have one screen active and be running in lid closed or "clamshell" mode.

Hmmm, did you mean pissed off by your own lack of knowledge or ability to read the apple support site or search google; or pissed off at apple for something?

If you want to do what you want to do then you'll have to modify the options on the dell screen, go into the OSD menu and set it to stretch. This isn't the way you should do things as it will distort the screen.

BTW apologies to anyone who thought my post was a bit rude, but there are a lot more important things in this life to be pissed off about. You know maybe like an annoying whine, or sudden shut down syndrome, or maybe slow SATA in boot camp. I thought this was actually going to be a serious "pissed off" thread.

 

[robbieduncan]

yes resolutions to the max. i do want a mirror.
I want the mirror image on my dell 1907FP to use the whole space, and not give me two black strips at the bottom and top.

You simply can't have that. For it to be a mirror both screens have to display the exact same resolution. So the larger screen will always have black borders. You could shut the MacBook attach a USB keyboard and mouse and then the Dell would be the only screen...

 

[DwightSchrute]

I thought I read somewhere that running computers in closed lid mode was bad for the screens because of the heat. Is that true?

 

[p0intblank]

I thought I read somewhere that running computers in closed lid mode was bad for the screens because of the heat. Is that true?

I've been running my 17" PowerBook for a while like this and I have had no problems.

 

[DwightSchrute]

That's good. I'm thinking of getting a screen for my Macbook and I'll probably watch movies on it using closed lid mode.

 

[Chundles]

I thought I read somewhere that running computers in closed lid mode was bad for the screens because of the heat. Is that true?

Not for computers designed to be run in such a way. The PowerBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook all support closed-lid operation.

Farqueue, you're a bit confused ol' son. "Mirroring" means that what you see on the internal display is exactly what you see on the external display, right down to the resolution and aspect ration. If you set it to "Spanning" you have two separate desktops giving you more space for all your applications - you can set your external display as your main display in the preferences and use your MacBook's screen for small, secondary stuff.

From what I gather however, you want to use the 19" monitor as your only display. For this to work, plug in a USB mouse and keyboard as well and the external display and then close the lid on your MacBook. Then wake your MacBook with the external keyboard (tap a key or something) and the MacBook will use the external screen with it's lid closed, dedicating all video resources to the larger screen.

 

[Super Macho Man]

yes resolutions to the max. i do want a mirror.
I want the mirror image on my dell 1907FP to use the whole space, and not give me two black strips at the bottom and top.

You can't mirror the two displays and not either squish one, or get black strips on one. The Dell is 1280x1024, or a 5:4 aspect ratio. The iBook is 1024x768 or a 4:3 aspect ratio. Mirroring would put a 4:3 aspect ratio display into a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor and that would either give you black bars, or vertically stretch the image on the external monitor.

If you set the resolution of the Dell to 1280x960, it would get rid of the black strips. But you would have to set it to 1024x768 to match the iBook's rez if you wanted to mirror.

 

[Chundles]

You can't mirror the two displays and not either squish one, or get black strips on one. The Dell is 1280x1024, or a 5:4 aspect ratio. The iBook is 1024x768 or a 4:3 aspect ratio. Mirroring would put a 4:3 aspect ratio display into a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor and that would either give you black bars, or vertically stretch the image on the external monitor.

If you set the resolution of the Dell to 1280x960, it would get rid of the black strips. But you would have to set it to 1024x768 to match the iBook's rez if you wanted to mirror.

Why are you talking about an iBook? Farq's got a MacBook.

Same story though now we're dealing with 5:4 and 16:9.

He just needs to close the lid.

 

[TBi]

From what I gather however, you want to use the 19" monitor as your only display. For this to work, plug in a USB mouse and keyboard as well and the external display and then close the lid on your MacBook. Then wake your MacBook with the external keyboard (tap a key or something) and the MacBook will use the external screen with it's lid closed, dedicating all video resources to the larger screen.

Don't forget the power cable or else the macbook will just go back to sleep when you wake it up when closed.

Power cable, external display, and external keyboard at least need to be connected for lid closed operation to work.

 

[Chundles]

Don't forget the power cable or else the macbook will just go back to sleep when you wake it up when closed.

Power cable, external display, and external keyboard at least need to be connected for lid closed operation to work.

Oh yeah, power cable. Cheers.