Calibration confusion

[Saberon]

I just recently bought a MBP in the last week or two and had a question about the Apple support document regarding calibration of the battery indicator.

1) Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2) Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3) Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
4) At this point, save your work. Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
5) Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

It's all good until step 3. It says to run the Mac off battery until it gets low and powers itself off (sleep). Can it be turned off/on during that time or does it have to be from 100% charge all the way down to 0% in 1 "session" if you will? Can I run it down to 0% over a couple days as long as I don't plug it in during that time?

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

Can it be turned off/on during that time or does it have to be from 100% charge all the way down to 0% in 1 "session" if you will? Can I run it down to 0% over a couple days as long as I don't plug it in during that time?

You can, but it takes much longer to calibrate that way. Just leaving it on and letting it drain, even if you're not using it, will make the calibration process faster. Use Caffeine to make sure it doesn't go into sleep mode prematurely, again, so it will drain faster. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[MacBookPro13"]

5) Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

This bit?

How can you turn it off when it's already gone off?

Is there a way of "turning it off" without having to wait the five hours?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

This bit?

How can you turn it off when it's already gone off?

Is there a way of "turning it off" without having to wait the five hours?

Why the need to turn off? The five hours are needed to fully discharge the battery. You can't accelerate the process by turning the Mac off.