Coordinating two screens on mac
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guys, i need some help. i just bought a macbook pro 15" and a 20" apple cinema display and wonder how you coordinate the use of two monitors.
i was hoping it would be possible to close the macbook and work solely on the big screen (and only use the two at the same time when really needed). so far i have not found a way to do that. what i can do is work with both at the same time, the 20" being used as an enlargement of the macbook's screen. this is ok but makes me keep moving my head from side to side as i have not been able to move the top menus to the bigger screen. for instance, on SU i can have the modelling area on the big screen and the menus and tool sets on the small one but i do not find this arrangement that confortable.
does anyone know how to do what i want? would a separate application be needed for that?
cheers.
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hi Edson, good morning.
You can mirror your displays so that both monitors display the exact same thing. You can do this either through system preferences/displays/arrangement/mirror (a little check box on the lower left of the arrangement window).
You can also just hit f7 to turn on the mirroring.
If you have your displays icon visible on your menu bar, you can also choose "turn on mirroring" from the drop down.
FWIW, I use two monitors and put everything except the working window on the small screen. Since I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, I have found this to work the best for me, sorry you don't find it comfortable.
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hi chuck,
i knew about the mirroring feature. what i do not like about it is that the big screen loses definition with that. things appear much bigger and less defined in the big one than when i am not in mirror mode.
do you know how to solve that?
cheers.
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Can't you just make your big monitor the default monitor under displays/arrangements? All you have to do is drag the menu bar (the white rectangle on the top of your smaller monitor blue rectangle) from one monitor to the other. That should display at the proper resolution.
Of course, then your menu bar is on that monitor always.
I hope that works for you
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GRREEEEAT! a million thanks, chuck. that suits me perfectly. it was just there, and i did not see it!
being apple what it is, they would have thought of that.
another doubt: is it possible to close the notebook's lid and keep it working? sometimes i do not need the two screens and would like to work only with the 20" one.
regards.
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Excellent! Glad to help.
It is no problem working with the laptop lid closed (known as clamshell mode), AFAIK.
You should check out this site: http://forums.macrumors.com/index.php If you can't get an answer to a Mac question there, the answer is more than likely NO
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