viewing more of your doc on an external monitor

I've connected my laptop (a 13" MacBook Pro 10.7.5, Lion OS X) to a bigger (external) desktop monitor, with the hope of making longer documents and webpages easier to view (i.e. to maybe see an entire page on my external screen instead of just the 2 little paragraphs that show on the smaller laptop screen) - but all i've been able to accomplish as a computer-illiterate newbie, is an exact mirror image (i.e. same size, same amount of text as what's on the laptop screen i.e. the same 2 little paragraphs). How do I see MORE of my document or webpage on the external monitor (WITHOUT reducing font size, which i just have to later change back so to be able to later view it properly on the smaller MacBook Pro screen, so want to avoid changing font sizing back & forth, over & over, depending on whether i'm working on it on the laptop or the external monitor)? A straight mirror connection doesn't do it and I've tried changing the resolution, but with insufficient effect. I just want to be able to see AS MUCH of a document or webpage as I could if i were just working on a stand-alone desktop computer with a big screen. Can anyone help me out?

candace regan said:

How do I see MORE of my document or webpage on the external monitor (WITHOUT reducing font size, which i just have to later change back so to be able to later view it properly on the smaller MacBook Pro screen, so want to avoid changing font sizing back & forth, over & over, depending on whether i'm working on it on the laptop or the external monitor)?

Click to expand...

For starters…this all depends on what the specs are of this external monitor. Since we don't know its resolution abilities…it may or may not be able to display more than the MacBook Pro's display.

Second. You want to get out of "mirror mode"…and get into "extended desktop mode".

Follow the instructions in this document to do that:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202351

- Nick

max resolution on external Proscan monitor is 1440 x 900
max resolution i see available on the laptop is 1280 x 800

i followed the linked instructions & unclicked "mirror mode"... now my cursor & screen functions are now just on the external monitor (which i gather was the intention) - but now the top menu bar & bottom dock no longer show on the external screen, just on the laptop, which I can't access given there's now no cursor or screen functions available on the laptop. Obviously I'm missing something. And trying to figure out if it's fixable, and if it's not (maybe given resolution limitations of my Proscan, which i didn't think to consider before buying), then whether it maybe makes more sense to buy another external monitor (with different resolution specifications of _______?) or whether to bite the bullet & buy a desktop i-Mac. Just looking to the cheapest, most efficient fix due to budget constraints.

candace regan said:

max resolution on external Proscan monitor is 1440 x 900
max resolution i see available on the laptop is 1280 x 800

Click to expand...

Thanks for the display info. Yes…the resolution of this external display is not much more than the 13" MacBook Pro's display. 1440 x 900 is what is found on most 15" displays. It probably isn't enough to view a full page document…but of course it is more than the 13" MacBook Pro's display.

candace regan said:

- but now the top menu bar & bottom dock no longer show on the external screen, just on the laptop, which I can't access given there's now no cursor or screen functions available on the laptop. Obviously I'm missing something.

Click to expand...

You can have the menu bar and the dock on either the external display or the MacBook Pro's display. Look at the photo below. You will see the "white bar" at the top of the representation of one of the displays. You can click & drag this white bar to the other display. And then the Menu Bar & Dock will be on the other display.

candace regan said:

And trying to figure out if it's fixable, and if it's not (maybe given resolution limitations of my Proscan, which i didn't think to consider before buying), then whether it maybe makes more sense to buy another external monitor (with different resolution specifications...

Click to expand...

If you want an external monitor with a greater resolution. Something like a 22"-24" display will get the job done. This size monitor will have a resolution of 1680 x 1050 to 1920 x 1080. You will be able to see a lot more.

If you shop around…monitors this size can be found for $150 or less brand new. And if you are ok with a used display…they can be found for a lot less on Craig's List.

HTH,

- Nick

good info on getting a bigger monitor than my current Proscan... thx for that... but how do i drag the white bar over to the other display representation when the 'working' screen with the working cursor is on the laptop, with the extended desktop mode on the external screen which doesn't have a cursor or functions etc. on that one (i.e. i can't access 'system preferences' on the external, only on the laptop, but looks like i need to access it on the external so that i can move the white bar over, so to switch the cursor & menu bar & dock to the other screen.)

If both screen are showing a picture you can make the necessary adjustments. You should be able to move the cursor from one screen to the other without a problem. If you can't try dragging the cursor all the way off screen in each direction until it appears on the other screen.

Give this a quick read and see if it clears up the situation. It covers an older version of OS X but the principles are the same.

If you click and drag the white bar in the image to the other display. It has nothing to do with the computer, but its all done in the System Preferences as in the image below.



Now with the cursor, you can drag it ALLLLL the way from one display to the other, but I use a cool little App called CatchMouse or I believe it is now in the Mac App Store . . . Doesn't seem to be in the Australia Store, but it shows up in a Google search.
It uses a kb shortcut and I use ⌘; for Left monitor and ⌘' for Right monitor. It saves me a heap of time.

I have a large external monitor for my MPB, and one little tricky thing I have noted is that moving the mouse from one monitor to the other, not by any key combination, but just scrolling, depends on where on the monitor the mouse is. It will NOT move where the image of the monitors aren't touching in the settings area shown in TatooedMac's image. That is, if the mouse is on the bottom of the left screen and you try to move it to the right, it has to be above where the smaller box on the right touches the larger on the left. Otherwise it just sticks at the edge. It has no place to go, so it doesn't go.

You can click/drag the two monitor images to define where that overlap takes place. I think the default is that the top edges match, but you can move the smaller up and down to wherever you want it to be.

Good catch Jake. I should have thought to mention that. Comes back to bite me every once in a while.

I just thought I'd mention it and it may be useful for the OP and setting resolutions etc. and that's using SwitchResX.
SwitchResX - The Most Versatile Tool For Controlling Screen Resolutions On Your Mac

We've used it with a few different setups and it's been great and free to try.
It's also free I believe if you don't need some special settings which will not be saved with a shutdown or restart.

Thanks & appreciation to all who replied. I've since decided to forgo my 15" Proscan, and instead purchased a 24" Vizta(?) to connect my 13" MacBook Pro to... will play around with all the suggestions & pointers to (try to) get familiar with the how to's of using an external monitor with my laptop & the ins & outs of working with & going back & forth btwn the two (simple for most, but confusingly difficult with a brain injury to follow & comprehend new info). If I can't in the end (comprehend the how's), then perhaps investing the money into a proper (conventional) desktop PC setup (an i-Mac, to be compatible with my MacBook), though expensive, may be my easiest solution given my cognitive challenges. Always open to suggestions.

The problem I'm having now is this: with a Pages doc open from my laptop, it comes up with its usual little half of a page showing on my little laptop screen.... connect to external monitor, and even on extended desktop mode, it shows that same little half page... i.e. doesn't automatically resize it to full-page view (hence WHY I'm using the 24" external screen, so to view & read a full page of my doc on that screen).

So Question 1: Is there some short-cut to make it resize my laptop Pages doc to automatically show a full page on the external monitor (so that i don't have to manually click & drag the margins up & down to full-page size it to fit the bigger screen)? (i.e. in a PDF doc, the menu bar has a button you can click that says "Fit one full page to window" - but I don't have that on my Pages menu bar.)

Question 2: Is there some short-cut to having it display 2 pages of your laptop Pages doc side by side? (i.e. on the Adobe menu bar, I can click "View - Page Display - Two Page View", but that option doesn't show under "View" on my Pages menu bar).

Anyone??

candace regan said:

So Question 1: Is there some short-cut to make it resize my laptop Pages doc to automatically show a full page on the external monitor (so that i don't have to manually click & drag the margins up & down to full-page size it to fit the bigger screen)? (i.e. in a PDF doc, the menu bar has a button you can click that says "Fit one full page to window" - but I don't have that on my Pages menu bar.)

Question 2: Is there some short-cut to having it display 2 pages of your laptop Pages doc side by side? (i.e. on the Adobe menu bar, I can click "View - Page Display - Two Page View", but that option doesn't show under "View" on my Pages menu bar).

Anyone??

Click to expand...

Question 2: Let me just say first up, that in Oct or whenever Apple release OS X 10.11 El Capitan you will be able to do the window resizing, by just dragging a Window to a certain position.

But, saying that, you might want something now, and if you download BetterTouch Tool, you can achieve this with Window Snapping.

On Question 1: Do you mean the actual Document within the Pages Window ?? or the whole pages Window ??

If you mean the First, you can with your Trackpad, pinch in and out to resize the Pages Document within the App to fit the whole Window, or if you mean the second, you should be able to resize it once, and it should remember that size for next time. (then again, Bettertouch Tool will also resize the whole window with Window Snapping)
Whenever I drag a window across after initial resize, it always goes Full Window. If you want fullscreen, you click the green dot top left . . .

Hope that makes sense, its still first coffee hour after waking here

Do you have any kind of visual assistance turned on in "universal access," or have the two monitors set to the same resolution?

TattooedMac said:

Question 2: Let me just say first up, that in Oct or whenever Apple release OS X 10.11 El Capitan you will be able to do the window resizing, by just dragging a Window to a certain position.

But, saying that, you might want something now, and if you download BetterTouch Tool, you can achieve this with Window Snapping.

On Question 1: Do you mean the actual Document within the Pages Window ?? or the whole pages Window ??

If you mean the First, you can with your Trackpad, pinch in and out to resize the Pages Document within the App to fit the whole Window, or if you mean the second, you should be able to resize it once, and it should remember that size for next time. (then again, Bettertouch Tool will also resize the whole window with Window Snapping)
Whenever I drag a window across after initial resize, it always goes Full Window. If you want fullscreen, you click the green dot top left . . .

Hope that makes sense, its still first coffee hour after waking here

Click to expand...

TattooedMac: sorry, brain injury may be preventing me from understanding, your 'On Question 1'... i was meaning 'the actual document within the pages window' (which i think of as the same as, i.e. that THAT is, 'the whole pages window'. b/c of my learning difficulties, i'll skip Bettertouch Tool... and for whatever reason the trackpad pinching to resize the pages doc doesn't work. regardless, the biggest thing i was looking for was your (likely obvious to others') suggestion that "If you want fullscreen, you click the green dot top left)... i had never had to use the green dot on my laptop screen, so it didn't even occur to me to click on it... never used it, never noticed it... so that green dot suggestion has given me exactly what i needed on the resizing front (i.e. to quickly/easily resize it when i view it on the bigger, external monitor. I thank you ever so much. With that, i think i can deal with not knowing the rest. that at least gets me what i wanted - seeing more of my document (i.e. a full page) on the external monitor. Now just have to figure out how to view two pages of a Pages document side-by-side i.e. page 1 & 2, side-by-side on the screen (refer to my initial post for clarification).

To everyone else: i'll stick with the green-dot solution for now, until i have better cognitive function & can wrap my brain around downloading & learning this or that. i'll revisit your comments & suggestions when i'm a little better. in the meantime, i thank you for your time. And let me know if anyone can help on how to view two pages of a Pages document side-by-side i.e. pages 1 & 2, side-by-side on the screen (refer to my initial post for clarification).