It takes too many steps in Mac OS X to switch between mirrored and extended desktop mode on external displays.
Mirror Displays is particularly useful if you run Mac OS X on a netbook and you want to toggle views.
Mirror Displays includes two programs:
· A simple Application to toggle between mirrored and extended desktop modes for the Mac. You can put it in your dock for an easy-access switch, or activate it with Quicksilver, Quick Search Box or Spotlight. When you run it, it will bounce in the doc once or twice and make the change in the background. There is no user interface, and only makes the change in settings if an external monitor is attached.
· A command line tool: good for giving shell-scripts the power to control display mirroring and opens up the possibility of controlling mirroring remotely over ssh. In addition to the default toggle mode, it can turn mirroring on or off regardless of what the current state of mirroring is, and can report the current mirroring status without changing anything.
To see how it works, open the System Preferences, go to the Display pane, go to the Arrangement tab, and toggle the Mirror Displays checkbox. It is a dance seen all too often before presentations when PowerPoint or Keynote are showing the presentation on the laptop screen instead of the projector.
Apple used to have the courtesy to give laptops a dedicated key to toggle display mirroring. That has been replaced with the under-documented Cmd+F1 in newer Apple laptops, but leaves Desktop machines and hacked laptops in the cold.
It is the easiest way to turn on, or turn off mirroring displays on a Mac. You can put it in your dock for an easy-access switch, or activate it with Quicksilver, Quick Search Box or Spotlight. When you run it, it will bounce in the doc once or twice and change the display mirroring settings. There is no user interface, and only makes the change in settings if an external monitor is attached.
What the program will not do is to fix or enable mirroring on a hacked computer where a secondary display only works in one mode or the other. It also will not magically make an external monitor work if the computer doesn’t recognize it when it’s plugged in. You can use it to switch from your broken mirrored mode to the functional extended mode.
· GPL
