Putting the screen into sleep mode?

[definitive]

Is there a way to just turn the screen off to sleep, and keep the rest of the hardware on without having to wait 1 minute (or whatever amount you pick in energy settings) for it to sleep? I see that there is a sleep option in the drop down menu on top left, but I'm not sure if it puts the entire system to sleep, or just the screen?

 

[sammich]

Control - Shift - Eject Key

 

[xUKHCx]

I see that there is a sleep option in the drop down menu on top left, but I'm not sure if it puts the entire system to sleep, or just the screen?

That option will sleep the entire computer

If you are running Leopard then you can set a hot corner to sleep the display.

System Preferences - Exposé & Spaces - Exposé

Then use the drop down menus to set one corner to sleep display.

Or you can use a keyboard shortcut control + shift + eject key

If you are running Tiger then I seem to remember finding a 3rd party utility to do this. I just had a look and this widget suggests it should work but I haven't tried it http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32332