Enable Monitor Rotation on your Powerbook
I was right. I never tire of saying that, or even typing it. Way back in March I posted about how it was rumored that monitor rotation would be included in Tiger (and I guessed that Tiger would cost $129). As we all know by now, I was right (on both accounts).However, it looked like us Powerbook users wouldn't be able to use this feature. Fear not, according to Leo at fscklog Powerbook users can rejoice! At least 15-inch or greater Powerbook users with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 can rejoice. Luckily, I count myself amongst those numbers; sadly C.K. has a 12-inch Powerbook, and this trick wouldn't work for him.
I am happy to report that rotating your monitor on a 15-inch Powerbook has never been easier:
1. Launch System Preferences (if you already have System Preferences open quit it and launch it again).
2. Hold down the Option key and click the 'Displays' preference.
3. There's no step 3!
You should find yourself looking at a preference pane that looks exactly like the picture in this post. Rotate at your own risk though, navigating via trackpad with the screen rotated at 90 degrees isn't as easy as it sounds.
To return your screen to normal repeat steps 1 and 2 (including quitting System Preferences).
This entry was tag team written by C.K. and myself, so if it seems meaner than my normal fare you know why.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
william Ng said 2:25AM on 12-15-2005
Re: slow on rotated screen
i am using painter essential, when i am drawing on the rotated screen, its takes half a second more for the stroke to complete, its quite annoying....
i am on a 1GHz G4 Powerbook with 768mb Ram. i hope there is a way to fix this, coz one of my main reason not going for the cinema display is being able to rotate the screen.
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El Payo said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Works on a 15" AlBook with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 as well. Cool!
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kmduke said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Worked for me on my 12' iBook with the ATI 9200, and wow, trying to use the trackpad, AHHHHHHH.
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mitey said 2:37PM on 10-23-2005
Works on my mini with a rotatable 19" samsung lcd...The software that came with the monitor was, of course, windows only so I've been dying for this feature for months now. However, why is it so horribly slow when rotated 90 degrees? The GPU seems to sputter with features like Expose and even simple window dragging when it is completely competent when not rotated. It's killing me, does anyone have a solution...or at least an explanation? Thanks.
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RP said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
I think I need an upgrade or I'm doing something wrong. Not working for a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX and a 17" LCD Studio Display.
I was thinking of buying a Radeon 9800 XT. Would it work with that?
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lgc90too said 11:21PM on 8-16-2005
Posted 5/4/2005 9:06:09 PM by El Payo
Works on a 15" AlBook with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 as well. Cool!
I have the same one, but it didn't work for me. eh? help! must. view. sideways.
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chris said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Worked on my Tibook with Radeon 8500.
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lgc90too said 11:21PM on 8-16-2005
When you say, "Hold down the Option key and click the 'Monitors' preference," do you mean the 'Displays' preference changes to 'Monitors' or am I just going crazy?
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Scott McNulty said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
lgc90too, you're right! I fixed it, thanks.
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Ryan said 2:21AM on 7-23-2005
Woah! Didn't read the whole post before I did this and FREAKED OUT once I had my screen rotated 90 with no visible way of getting back to normal.
I feel some late April Fools pranks coming on...
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Shane Todd said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
You bastards! Do you know how hard it is to use a trackpad with the monitor rotated like that!
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Scott McNulty said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Shane, I tried to warn you!
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Aaron Vegh said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
My god, why??? What possible utility could this serve on the Powerbook?
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Jason Robertson said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
It works on my 14" iBook G4 with a Radeon 9200
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Michael said 11:18AM on 7-01-2005
Man, this is going to be a fun trick to play on many friends!
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Jeff said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
okay, so rotating 180 degrees (flipping it) also flipped the trackpad control - up was down, etc. BUT rotating only 90 degrees didn't "remap" the trackpad, thus making it really really really hard to get it back. Wonder why they didn't take that into consideration...
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Evansbee said 4:33PM on 7-08-2005
This is pretty cool. If you combine this with that handwriting program they have in OS X (inkwell or somthing) it starts to look like the next gen powerbooks might have fold over screens and double as tablet pcs.
/me prays
-Evan
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mitey said 2:37PM on 10-23-2005
again, any ideas on why graphics slow to a crawl when rotated. Expose, Quartz2D stuff, window draws are incredibly slow. can my mini's gpu not handle it?
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Scott McNulty said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Mitey, if I had to guess, which I assume you would like me to, you are right. The Mac mini is using up most of its graphics mojo drawing the screen to whatever rotation you have it set to, so I would expect lightening fast reaction out of other graphically intense operations.
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Caius Durling said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Doesn't work for me on my 12" with GeForce FX Go5200. Guess I'm in the same boat as CK when it comes to screen rotation. I'll be testing this on my mates new iBook when it comes, and my friends iMac G5 once his new modem arrives and he installs tiger.
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