unplugging/plugging external monitor with MBP

Is this hurting the computer/graphics card?

Everyday I plug my external monitor into DVI port on my MBP. At first, I would do this while the computer was off. Now, I'll just plug it in while the computer is on. And I almost never screw in the screws. I unplug the same way. Part of me feels like I am playing with fire every time I do this. The other part of me feels like this magical machine can do anything and this is what it is made to do.

Most of the time I find that the computer will usually detect the external right away with the quick blue screen flash and then boom, 2 monitors. I say usually because I sometimes have to go and detect the displays in system pref's manually.

Another glitch is sometimes after plugging in, the menu bar at the top of the external only goes 3/4 way across the top of the screen (when this happens, it seems to go away by itself after a bit). And every once and while, my dock disappears from both monitors completely. Every thing else is fine, just no dock. Then I have to go and play with the arrangement in the display settings until I can get it pop up again.

I found I was having even more problems (or more frequent of the above) when I would unplug/plug in while the computer was asleep so I switched to doing it while it was on.

Am I crazy for doing this with a brand new MBP? Should this only be done while the computer is off?

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I know the user manual says to...

1 Turn on the external display or projector.
2 Make sure the display cable is connected to the external projector or display.
3 Connect the display cable to your MacBook Pro. Your MacBook Pro automatically detects the external display.
4 Adjust the resolution on the external display by using the Displays"

Still, I have these small glitches when attaching external monitor so I was wondering about #3 above as it doesn't specify if the computer should be off, asleep or on. Or if it even matters. Sounds like it doesn't matter from some of the posts.