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Screen Spanning For some of us |
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Written by David Jackson
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Monday, 16 January 2006 |
 Do you own an iMac or an eMac? Maybe an ibook? Ever wish you had a little more real-estate on your desktop? For all those aps you like to run at the same time a second screen would be great right?
Read on to see how easy it is:
Apple supplies a VGA adapter for your all-in- one Mac to mirror the image on a second monitor for presentations. I’ll show you how to span your desktop to that second monitor, be it a crt, lcd even a projector. Have as much desktop as you like for around 20 bucks for the adapter and some free software.
First things first, make sure your Mac has an extra video output. On my G5 iMac its a wee little connector above the usb ports. I understand this is a standard mini-VGA connector. And is on most powerbooks and all-in-one desktops.
Next you will need the adaptor from Apple so run to your nearest Apple store or go on-line as I did to (Link)
Once you have the adapter in your hot little hands, surf over to (link)
And download Screen Spanning Doctor
This program is intended to unlock some features of the graphics hardware in some Macs (iBook, iMac, eMac but not for all models - you can find a complete list at http://macparts.de/ibook).
On supported Macs it will allow the use of an extended desktop where usually only mirrored mode is available. This enables you to use an external display to extend your workspace. It will also unlock additional resolutions for the external display making it possible to driver high-resolution screens. This is especially nice if you want to use an LCD panel that has a higher native resolution than the 1024*768 of the internal display. After you apply the patch you should see an additional tab in the displays preference pane called "Arrange".
You will only see this tab if you have at least the monitor adapter plugged in.
The patched iBook behave just just like any Mac with multiple displays would. You also can still set it to use mirrored mode (for presentations etc.).
Open the display properties dialog and un-check mirror display in the “arrange” tab and drag the second image to the right, left or where ever you have your second display located. Then adjust the resolution on either display to what looks good to you. Then fire up a couple aps and drag one to the new display. The first time you see your app or browser window appear on the second display is pretty awesome. So enjoy your new expanded desktop and let the multi tasking begin!
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