How To

How to Change Display Resolution in Mac OSX

Contributor
By Alexia Petrakos
eHow Contributing Writer
(12 Ratings)
Change Display Resolution in Mac OSX
Change Display Resolution in Mac OSX

Changing or upgrading your computer monitor may mean having to change your display resolution. Here's the quick and easy way to alter your screen' s resolution on the fly.

Difficulty: Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Computer running Mac OSX
  1. Step 1

    Click on the Apple logo in the top left corner of your menu bar and select "System Preferences".

  2. Step 2

    Select "Displays"

  3. Step 3

    Check the box that says "Show displays in menu bar". This will add a monitor icon to the right side of the menu bar.

  4. Step 4

    Locate the monitor icon on the top right of your screen on the menu bar.

  5. Step 5

    Click on the Monitor icon. This will bring up a menu with several options.

  6. Step 6

    Select your desired screen resolution. OSX will change the display resolution on its own.

  7. Step 7

    To quickly switch between resolutions, you can just select one and OSX will change it immediately.

  8. Step 8

    You can also access the "Displays Preferences" screen from here without going through the "System Preferences" window.

Tips & Warnings
  • This quick-access menu also allows you to list 0, 3, 5 or 10 of the most recently used display resolutions. Select "Number of Recent Items" and it will display that number of items in the list.
  • Not all resolutions work for all monitors. Widescreen monitors have different display resolutions than traditional monitors. For example, a typical 19" widescreen LCD monitor resolution can go up to 1440x900, while a traditional 19" monitor resolution can go up to 1280x1024.

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