Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Turning the monitor off without turning the computer off?

mrat93

mrat93

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 30, 2006
2,338
3,360
I'll probably get my iMac on Tuesday if there is something new announced. I was just wondering if there was a way to turn the monitor off without turning the computer off. I use this often with my Dell monitor now. I noticed on my brother's MacBook that even if I turn the brightness all the way down, the picture still shows a little bit. I want to be able to just turn it off.

Don't ask why I need to do this even if most of you probably know why.
 
Maybe you guys didn't understand my expectations of what I want. I want to be able to turn the screen off at any time within a few seconds. Something just as easy as pressing the power button on my monitor now.
 
You can also access the keychain preferences, and activate the security menu (looks like a pad lock). Setting it to lock the screen will activate the screen saver and require a password to unlock it. If you set the screen sleep to 2 minutes, and use 'blank screen' as your screen saver, you would get a similar effect.

TEG
 
I don't have an iMac, but with my macbook pro hooked up to an external monitor I can set the power button of the display to do a number of things such as putting the computer to sleep or turning the display off. It is under the display preferences. Since the iMac's power button is probably a "soft" button, it may have other settings also.
 
Just turn the backlight off and leave it alone. The screen itself will shut off in 10 minutes or so (adjustable in System Preferences) of inactivity.

Or if you want to do what I think you're doing, just hide the active window! :p Hit cmd(apple button)+H and it will immediately hide whatever window is in your foreground.
 
I have this problem too, only i have a HDTV connected to my iMac and I want to be able to turn off my iMac monitor while watching movies.

It's pretty fantastic that the iMac doesn't have a feature to turn the screen off.

It's like not having a door to your house cause the door doesn't "look good" with the rest of the house's slick brick walls.
 
i have mine setup so when i move the mouse to the bottom right corner the display instantly goes off!

matt
 
the problem with that is that the hdtv connected to the imac also turns off if i do that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back