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

Rotating your Powerbook Display in Tiger

Applespider

Applespider

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jan 20, 2004
10,939
1
looking through rose-tinted spectacles...
Apparently, you can now rotate your Powerbook display through 90/180/270 degrees in Tiger... although unfortunately, it doesn't remap your trackpad so navigating around the screen to get back to normal can apparently be a little tricky

Instructions from TUAW

Basically, launch System Preferences and hold down option when you click on Display; you'll get a rotation option.

Quit System Preferences and then relaunch it, holding down option when you click on Display to get back to normal again.
 
heh, i smell a prank at the local apple store. . . suddunly all of the PB displace are rotated 180 degrees!!!! hehehe im sure it would take the apple people a while to figure out how to correct that!

. . . ok, im not really that mean, but it would deffinitly be funny to do to a buddy that doesnt know about this option!
 
Applespider said:
Apparently, you can now rotate your Powerbook display through 90/180/270 degrees in Tiger... although unfortunately, it doesn't remap your trackpad so navigating around the screen to get back to normal can apparently be a little tricky

...
Click to expand...
That's when you pull out your bluetooth mouse and turn it on and use that instead of the trackpad.
 
That is messed up! Did it on my TiBook hooked up to my 19"CRT, very odd indead. Took me a minute to figure out the mouse to reset the standard.

almost made me sick to tummy.
 
LOL, nice. It works on the iBook too. It would be gangsta to hold the 'book like a real book and read it vertically. :D

BTW, ***WARNING*** at least for me, for some reason, the option to go back disappeared from the system preferences (even if I went to show all and then option clicked Displays again) until I quit SysPrefs and launched it again. So erm...if that happens, Don't Panic™!!! :D
 
Hmm... imagine doing that on a 30" display and turning it sideways. No more vertical scrolling on web pages. :eek: :D
 
atari1356 said:
Hmm... imagine doing that on a 30" display and turning it sideways. No more vertical scrolling on web pages. :eek: :D
Click to expand...

Nope, but you would need a chair with a motorized height adjustment. :eek: ;) :D

Seriously, I think there's a page somewhere where someone hacked that on Panther. Interestingly, at that time, it required a special video card (the 800XT I think?). Odd that now a lowly, non-CI iBook G4/800 can do it.
 
primalman said:
That is messed up! Did it on my TiBook hooked up to my 19"CRT, very odd indead. Took me a minute to figure out the mouse to reset the standard.

almost made me sick to tummy.
Click to expand...

I know how you feel! I did it to my 15 inch Powerbook and it made me a little dizzy!
I also flipped out when I couldn't reset it for 10 minutes. It was sooo confusing to mouse around with it. I didn't think to get out my USB mouse.

I think I should go to the Apple store with it rotated and ask them how to fix it. See if they get confused... :D
 
Yeah, this was cool for about 30 seconds, until I couldn't set it back. After restarting sys prefs like had been suggested I got my display back to the way it was supposed to be. Now rotating it 270 is a freakin' trip!
 
I think Rotate is available to all models with Tiger.... At least most of them, anway. My family's iMac G5, Mac Mini, PM 2Ghz, 15in PB, 12in PB, and iMac G4 all do it. And it's accessible on all of them just by going into Displays in preferences... no key holding or anything. It's funky, for sure.... Does anyone here have a rotating monitor and actually use this feature?

PS wouldn't it be cool if there was some mod for the iMac G4's to rotate their screens? I could see that happening quite easily. Now, if only I could mod things...

EDIT: It's pretty easy to get used to if you just rotate your mouse however many degrees you rotate your screen
 
pdpfilms said:
I think Rotate is available to all models with Tiger.... At least most of them, anway. My family's iMac G5, Mac Mini, PM 2Ghz, 15in PB, 12in PB, and iMac G4 all do it. And it's accessible on all of them just by going into Displays in preferences... no key holding or anything. It's funky, for sure.... Does anyone here have a rotating monitor and actually use this feature?

PS wouldn't it be cool if there was some mod for the iMac G4's to rotate their screens? I could see that happening quite easily. Now, if only I could mod things...

EDIT: It's pretty easy to get used to if you just rotate your mouse however many degrees you rotate your screen
Click to expand...
The current iMacs are vesa mountable just like the Cinema displays, so you can indeed rotate your 30" if you want to. But you gotta buy a vesa mount.
 
Wow, that was a bit unsettling - took a second to figure out the movements to reset it! ;)

Now, of course, I'll do it to my iMac (previous generation) and mount it upside down. *



* No, not really. I doubt the heat transfer abilities would remain sufficient. But it's a cool thought....
 
munkle said:
Aawww, it doesn't work on my 12" PB...I want to play too!
Click to expand...
Yeah, same here. I'm disappointed. I was looking forward to using the rotating stand on my new Dell LCD to make typing Word documents easier. Has anyone else gotten this to work on a rev.B 12" PB?
 
pdpfilms said:
I think Rotate is available to all models with Tiger.... At least most of them, anway. My family's iMac G5, Mac Mini, PM 2Ghz, 15in PB, 12in PB, and iMac G4 all do it. And it's accessible on all of them just by going into Displays in preferences... no key holding or anything. It's funky, for sure.... Does anyone here have a rotating monitor and actually use this feature?...
Click to expand...

Hmm, how did you get it to work with your iMac G5? It doesn't seem to work on mine... I've got a 17'' 1.8GHZ with an nVIDIA GeForce FX 5900, 64mb of VRAM. :confused: :eek:
 
yg17 said:
Wont work on my G3 iBook, anyone else having better luck?
Click to expand...


Odd it worked on my iBook, i think its the same one as yours (in sig)

It also worked on my mini, very very odd, but a nice trick to play on someone *evil grin*

Ed
 
mkrishnan said:
If you think that's impressive, try 360?! That's *amazing*! :eek: ;) :D It's better than screen doors on a battleship! :D
Click to expand...


You're tricky. :D I like it!
If I weren't actually enrolled in a math class right now, I probably would have missed that, haha.
 
munkle said:
Aawww, it doesn't work on my 12" PB...I want to play too!
Click to expand...

Not for mine either...oh well, I'll just try it on my external monitory, maybe the height of the 12" just isnt' wide enough....strange, HEIGHT not WIDE enough....is this the twilight zone?
 
That was fun, now to hook it up to a car and rotate the screen 180 and use it as a portable DVD.
 
wheezy said:
Not for mine either...oh well, I'll just try it on my external monitory, maybe the height of the 12" just isnt' wide enough....strange, HEIGHT not WIDE enough....is this the twilight zone?
Click to expand...

Oddness...why would it work on the 12" iBook G4 and not the 12" PB G4? :( You have the better video card! :p
 
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