Screen Spanning Doctor — Must Have!
Okay, so I posted as one of my main points of upgrade to a Macbook Pro was the fact that you could have extended desktops while you can’t have this feature on an iBook (even though they both use the same graphic chips basically). Someone was very kind enough to post this link to an AppleScript that adds this functionality to certain models, including some iMacs, eMac, and iBooks.
So, I was able to install this very easily, then all I had to do was restart my computer and plug in a monitor. Voila! After unchecking a box that said something like “Mirror Desktops” I was able to drag around my displays to get them setup the way I wanted (external on left) etc, just like it was from the factory! Best of all, I’m hooked up to a 17″ CRT right now (one I had lying around) that supports 1280X1024, so I have a very cool resolution on that monitor, while I still have my stock 1024X768 on my main iBook screen. Very, very nice!
Expose is just a tad sluggish with this setup, but it works none the less. Supposedly this script also enabled a “clamshell mode” so that you can shut your main display, wake the computer with the lid still shut, and then use the external that way. Although, it warns you several times that it won’t vent properly and may overheat, so I don’t think that I’ll be trying this feature out for long periods of time.
However, I can’t thank the person enough who submitted the link for this script, I will be playing with this for awhile now!














Submitting Your Comment, give me a second...
“However, I can’t thank the person enough who submitted the link for this script, I will be playing with this for awhile now!”
You’re welcome! Have fun! Be careful about pulling out or putting in usb-devices when the lid is down though. If you’re in a hurry, you might not notice that the computer wakes up, and as you said, runs the risk of overheating. I’ve come close a couple of times, which is why I mention it.