help me through setting up an external monitor

[Bjazzman]

so i want to hook up an external monitor to my macbook pro. besides obviously hooking up the connecting cables, how do you get the picture to work while the laptop is closed?

i know you can press f7 to have the monitor show whats showing on the laptop's screen but you have to keep the computer open.

i've tried hooking up the mouse and external querty keyboard and putting the computer to sleep and waking it up again with the connected keyboard but it only works for a few seconds before going back to sleep. it does this repeatildy if i keep waking it up from sleep with the external mouse/keyboard


my second question is if i want to utilize both monitors(laptop and external), how could i make one display for say tracking through ableton/pro tools, and the other for something like reason. is this more trouble than its worth and how would you do it?

thanks

[Charling]

using both monitors at once is super easy, you just plug the second monitor in and it should work straight away. If it doesn't you need only go to system prefs>displays and enable it.

when a second monitor is plugged in a tab appears in the middle of the 'displays' pane, I think (trying to remember!) with extra options for dual screens. The box 'mirror main display' is important. If it is checked the second display will simply mirror the main, unchecked it will act like 2 seperate monitors. you can also choose where on the desktop the 2nd monitor 'sits' ie to the left, to the right etc.

as for using your macbook as a computer in 'clamshell' mode, it's do able to.

heres a link

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/.../t-213420.html

they mention a few things to be aware of, ie the heat not escaping as easily with the case closed, and the importance of giving it an air every now and then. Ie be wary of working all day with cpu intensive tasks with the macbook tucked away with no ventilation and the lid closed.

As mentioned on that forum, though, the macbook pro was designed to run like this so if anything DOES go wrong it should be covered under warranty!

edit - oh yeah, the power chord needs to be in for it to work, otherwise it will go to sleep as you described, do you have it plugged in?

[Jostein]

Is the power supply connected on you Macbook? For some reason it won't work when you only run it on battery.

I struggled quite a bit before I realize that.