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Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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Being able to switch your computer's screen orientation from landscape to portrait is a handy feature--especially if you have an external monitor that can be physically rotated. Changing your screen orientation can make life easier for reviewing and editing documents or to see a portrait-oriented image, full screen. On a laptop, the display can't be physically rotated without taking its attached keyboard along with it. If that's ok by you, here's the software trick that allows you to do it.
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review What You Need:
- A laptop computer with a Windows 10 or MacOS operating system
- A good reason to change your laptop's display orientation.
Time Needed
Two minutes
Difficulty
Easy
Step-by-Step:
Rotate your screen on a Windows laptop
The option to change your Windows 10 laptop's display orientation can be found under 'Display Settings'.
There are two ways to change the screen orientation on a Windows laptop. These will both work for any supported version of Windows.
Option 1: Using a shortcut
The quickest and easiest way is by using a keyboard shortcut, but its ability to work is dependent on your video card.
- While holding down CRTL and ALT, press the arrow keys (the UP arrow returns it to regular landscape).
Option 2: Using the display menus
- Open your display settings by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing ‘Display settings’ or open the start menu by clicking the Windows icon in the lower left corner and type ‘Display.’
- Under the ‘Scale and layout’ heading is a drop-down menu for Orientation. Select Landscape and you’re back to normal.
Rotate your screen on a Macbook
Hold down the Option and Command keys to access the display rotation drop-down menu.
The option to rotate your screen on a MacBook is hidden and requires some know-how to find.
- You can find System Preferences by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of your Mac's display. from the drop down menu, select System Preferences.
- When opening your System Preferences, hold down the Option and Command keys and then select display (if it’s already open, close it and re-open while holding the keys).
- Select Standard, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, or 270 degrees from the Rotation drop-down menu. If you don’t hold down Command and Option while opening System Preferences, the Rotation drop-down menu will not appear.
