everything on mac gone smaller!!

jose-fahartose

hi

i just let my buddy use my macbook and when i came back to use it everything is smaller! the desktop pic in the background is the same but all icons on desktop/font are all smaller. Its a 2nd monitor hooked up to my macbook..

Even on itunes/ google chrome this is happening.. i tried zooming in but this does not bring it back to the original way. i also tried the resolution but this didnt work


Any ideas?

Sad Professor

jose-fahartose wrote: »

Its a 2nd monitor hooked up to my macbook..

Can you clarify this? On which screen is everything smaller - the MacBook or the external display?

jose-fahartose

Sad Professor wrote: »

Can you clarify this? On which screen is everything smaller - the MacBook or the external display?

Its the external display, the macbook screen is normal..

Sad Professor

Then the resolution on the external display has been changed. You can adjust this in System Prefs > Display. Enable the menubar icon to change via the top menu.

jose-fahartose

Ive tried all the differant resolution sizes and none of them bring it back to the original.

The closest is 1920x1080 but it is still smaller..

I have now enlarged the desktop icons back to their original size + the dock manually so these look fine..

.. but its the finder window/the top bar containing time/airport etc and when i open things like iTunes and Safari that are the problem..

hope this makes sense

biko

Try this

1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
2. Choose Show View Options from the View menu. The Desktop window appears.
3. Use the slider and radio buttons to set the icon size and arrangement as desired.
4. Close the Desktop window.

Btw, do you have Tinkertool installed?

Sad Professor

Did you have display mirroring turned on before? That would limit the external display to the low resolution of your MacBook, making everything bigger.

jose-fahartose

biko wrote: »

Try this

1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
2. Choose Show View Options from the View menu. The Desktop window appears.
3. Use the slider and radio buttons to set the icon size and arrangement as desired.
4. Close the Desktop window.

Btw, do you have Tinkertool installed?

Yes i have done that but everything else on the whole system except the dock and icons are still smaller!!

Sad Professor wrote: »

Did you have display mirroring turned on before? That would limit the external display to the low resolution of your MacBook, making everything bigger.

No never used the mirror function..

jose-fahartose

to give an example of how small its like your reading off a phone with internet.. and its a 23inch monitor..

biko

Any chance you can do a screengrab and post?

jose-fahartose

biko wrote: »

Any chance you can do a screengrab and post?

The thing is it looks quiet normal in the screengrab, as everything is smaller but it looks normal so it doesn't show much.

I think its definitely something to do with the external screen as the size will automatically revert to a normal size once on the Macbook screen, then once back onto the external it goes to the smaller size.

Can I ask is there anyway of enlarging everything on a Macbook? Not using the zoom function as this works in a different way.

My eyes are actually in pain now from squinting the last few hours so hope its fixable!!

Sad Professor

It's clearly a resolution problem. 1920x1080 is ridiculously high for such a small screen. My 24-inch ACD isn't set that high. What other resolutions are available?

Also, is the MacBook and the external display showing the same image?

MiniNukinfuts

Have you tried going to the desktop, then press CMD + J. It gives you an option to resize the icons.

Stainless_Steel

Sad Professor wrote: »

It's clearly a resolution problem. 1920x1080 is ridiculously high for such a small screen. My 24-inch ACD isn't set that high. What other resolutions are available?

Also, is the MacBook and the external display showing the same image?

Why buy a high res expensive screen and not use its capabilities?

Sad Professor

Actually I was mistaken. I have it set to 1920×1200 which is the native resolution.

Stainless_Steel

Sad Professor wrote: »

Actually I was mistaken. I have it set to 1920×1200 which is the native resolution.

That's more like it

jose-fahartose

Sad Professor wrote: »

What other resolutions are available?

Also, is the MacBook and the external display showing the same image?

I have 2 resolutions available .. 1440x900 and 1920x1080, it seems a resolution between these two would work as the 1440 one is too zoomed and the 1920 is very hard on the eyes!

No the Macbook and external are not showing the same image.. the curser moves from one screen to the other.



As a temporary solution i have now just gone to the 1440 res and resized the icons but things like Safari and other programs i use are still a bit off

acous

jose-fahartose wrote: »

I have 2 resolutions available .. 1440x900 and 1920x1080

Strange. There would usually be more resolutions than that, also one res is 16:10 and the other is 16:9. Hitting "Detect Displays" doesn't help? There should be at least 10 resolutions in there AFAIK, including 1680x1050.

There's a program called switchresX that lets you set custom resolutions, but it wouldn't explain why the resolution changed in the first place

K.O.Kiki

jose-fahartose wrote: »

hi

i just let my buddy use my macbook and when i came back to use it everything is smaller! the desktop pic in the background is the same but all icons on desktop/font are all smaller. Its a 2nd monitor hooked up to my macbook..

Even on itunes/ google chrome this is happening.. i tried zooming in but this does not bring it back to the original way. i also tried the resolution but this didnt work


Any ideas?

Have you tried turning it off & turning it back on again?