problem hooking up my macbook aluminum to a dell screen

[natatos]

I'm new to here so I'll probably do something wrong but I have everything hooked up but i got the adapter to display things on my moms dell screen and make things bigger so i could see more then just 13" but it's square shaped so when i have the display good it is in widescreen witch i hate but the furthest out one that isn't widescreen is too zoomed in so how can i adjust it so that the wide screen is gone the orignal display is 1280x 1024 i think any help would be great thanks

 

[156457]

I'm new to here so I'll probably do something wrong but I have everything hooked up but i got the adapter to display things on my moms dell screen and make things bigger so i could see more then just 13" but it's square shaped so when i have the display good it is in widescreen witch i hate but the furthest out one that isn't widescreen is too zoomed in so how can i adjust it so that the wide screen is gone any help would be thank full

Go to System prefs >> Displays >> look for the dell monitor and set the res to the highest number you see.

 

[natatos]

Go to System prefs >> Displays >> look for the dell monitor and set the res to the highest number you see.

i tried that what happens is that it makes the widescreen bars on the screen

 

[156457]

i tried that what happens is that it makes the widescreen bars on the screen

take a picture and screenshot of the settings. choose a res which makes it 'not' wide screen. push the auto button on your monitor or something.

 

[kgarner]

Are you mirroring your laptop display onto the monitor? That's what it sounds like to me. Set the monitor to span the desktop onto the monitor, that way you get two displays.

 

[natatos]

Are you mirroring your laptop display onto the monitor? That's what it sounds like to me. Set the monitor to span the desktop onto the monitor, that way you get two displays.

no i have it mirrored

 

[156457]

no i have it mirrored

Well then take it off mirrored and set the dell as your primary display (I think you can do this by dragging the white bar on the little preview onto the other monitor.