Comments on: Rotate Mac Screen Orientation

By: jkirchartz

jkirchartz — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:41:50 +0000

This isn’t consistently working for me, I have two external monitors and if I hold cmd+alt while doing the system preference thing it shows the rotation drop-down for the monitor without the rotating base, and it doesn’t show it for the monitor with the rotating base.

It’s worked before, and this has happened before, it usually requires a reboot or two with the monitors plugged in & doing the cmd+alt trick.

By: georgia dennacion-riley

georgia dennacion-riley — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:21:39 +0000

i am on mac os x 10.7.4
if this helps!

By: georgia dennacion-riley

georgia dennacion-riley — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:19:53 +0000

it doesnt show on mine, i am pressing the right keys and clicking the right icon, but it still isnt showing!
ive done it once before, so this may have affected it.
can anyone help?

By: Fran Coates

Fran Coates — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:42:23 +0000

Thank you so much. I have not used my 24″ monitor for ages and just could not remember how to rotate it back to landscape. I knew it was something simple so thank you for put this on here.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:08:41 +0000

One way to handle the mouse:

Since I only do this for short periods (when I want to view a huge portrait photo in full resolution naturally) I just rotate my mouse physically by 90 degrees as well. Then when I move it left/right up/down etc., everything is natural. It isn’t very ergonomic, though, so I wouldn’t do that for long periods.

I expect if one physically rotates the monitor, too, everything is fine, but since the passive convective cooling form my iMac 27″ relies on the standard orientation (intake grill on bottom, exhaust slot on top), I’m leery of doing that with my iMac.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:47:35 +0000

Here’s why I had to do to add an HP 1740 monitor in portrait mode in Lion
same steps as above
- in Displays select show displays in menu bar
- in the menu bar select the HP1740 monitor
- the display preferences for the HP1740 then appeared on the HP1740
- then I changed the rotation to 90 degrees

By: Helen Lahaye

Helen Lahaye — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:41:40 +0000

Thanks , yours was the only answer that helped me

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:56:29 +0000

I need to correct my own posting. Hold down the Command and Option keys at the same time.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:58:49 +0000

To reinforce what others said:
Hold down the Shift and Option keys as you click on System Preferences in the Dock.
Keep holding these keys as you click on Displays.
The rotation option should appear.
I did this on System 10.6.8.

By: Mac Setups: MacBook Pro 13″ & Mac Mini

Mac Setups: MacBook Pro 13″ & Mac Mini — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:57:24 +0000

[...] awesome reader-submitted Mac setup features a MacBook Pro 13″ connected to the rotated monitor to the right, the little screen below is a 7″ Mimo display, and the iPad to the left is [...]

By: | Z Design Studios

| Z Design Studios — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:51:26 +0000

[...] ready to drool. This multi-displayed Mac setup has an impressive five 23″ screens rotated into portrait mode, and a MacBook Pro 17″ sits atop them [...]

By: Mac Setups: 5 Screens & a MacBook Pro

Mac Setups: 5 Screens & a MacBook Pro — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:24:18 +0000

[...] ready to drool. This multi-displayed Mac setup has an impressive five 23″ screens rotated into portrait mode, and a MacBook Pro 17″ sits atop them [...]

By: Althage

Althage — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:23:11 +0000

I cannot get this to work no matter what I do. I am running Lion on a 2007 MacBook, any ideas?

By: Mac Setups: MacBook Pro 15″ and iMac 27″

Mac Setups: MacBook Pro 15″ and iMac 27″ — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:17:43 +0000

[...] the left is a MacBook Pro 15″ Core 2 Duo with an SSD, the center rotated Dell 22″ screen, and on the right is a Core i7 iMac 27″ decked out with 12GB of RAM. [...]

By: Atu

Atu — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:06:27 +0000

How funny. Found the solution.

For those who are still unsure how to bring out the rotation option from System Preferences – Displays, here’s how you do it.
- open System Preferences like normal (if you have the icon on the dock, just a single, left click, you don’t need to press anything else at this point, or open it from where ever you can access System Preferences from)
- press and hold Option AND Command
- still pressing these two buttons, left click the Displays button in System Preferences
- you will see the Rotation menu on the right
- sometimes the Rotation menu disappears, then you have to close your System Preferences and start over

If you experienced the same problem as I have elaborated in my previous post, here’s a solution that worked for me.
- so you get the tall-skinny-unrotated screen after you select the 90º Rotation
- open a movie file (I only use VLC)
- and poof! the display will rotate as you have set them to be

Weird. I know. But hey – it works.