Thinkpads Forum

I have an X61 which I had to downgrade and install from Vista to XP Tablet PC edition, basically by installing XP/Tablet and running ThinkVantage System Update. It runs ok, except for one thing: I want to use it for presentations and frequently switch between keyboard mode and tablet mode. Problem:

With the Thinkpad open in keyboard mode and an external display, everything is fine. When I turn the display and use tablet mode, it goes into portrait mode. Same for the external display. I would like it to switch automatically to landscape 180 Degree rotated mode, but found no way of doing that.

However, that's not much of a problem, I can press the screen orientation button, and the display orientation is right (180 degree rotated). But - now my external display is rotated as well and upside down. I found that I can change this in the driver settings manually, but it needs to be done every time I change to tablet mode, no way during a presentation. So, here's the question:

-> Can I setup the thinkpad to go into 180 degree rotated mode, when the tablet is rotated?
-> Can I setup the thinkpad to never rotate the external display?

The presentation director change notes mention a problem like the last one, saying that it has been fixed in the latest version, but I have that version and the problem is there anyway.

Thank you, Frank

Hi wuebbel, welcome to the forum,

Have a look at this thread on the Lenovo forum, it should hopefully help you.

Hi,

andyP wrote:Hi wuebbel, welcome to the forum,
Have a look at this thread on the Lenovo forum, it should hopefully help you.

thank you for the pointer. After looking around a little, here is a short summary of various posts, just in case someone gets stuck here:

1st. In the table shortcut menu (that comes up when you press one of the tablet buttons) there's "settings" on the lower left. Here, you can choose which screen orientation should be used after turning the display. For a presentation, you will want "secondary landscape" here.

2nd. The problem with upside-down displays only comes up in cloned mode. For extended desktops, the external display does not flip when you turn the notebook screen. If you are using powerpoint in presenter view, using a pen to draw on the little preview of the external screen, this is what you need. Be sure to turn off "advance slide on mouse button" for all pages.

3rd. If you use cloned mode and turn the screen, the external display flips. I found no way of correcting that automatically. The best I could come up with: Use the INTEL driver to set the external monitor rotation to 0 degrees. If you create a scheme for that, you're effectively saving some mouse-hovering. This completely solves the problem, but I have found no way of doing this automatically, so I have to do that manually every time I rotate the display. Hard to do in a presentation. I would love to hear from someone that there is a simpler way.

There was a rumour that Ultramon could do that, but I was unable to confirm it.

Honestly, after looking around and finding that there is zero technical problem, I haven't the faintest idea why the default is to display the external image upside down. Seems like none of the tablet-designers has ever used one.

4th. A (non-satisfying) alternative to using cloned mode is to download the "extended desktop" powertoy and simulate cloned mode in extended desktop mode.

Thanks, Frank

just move cursor on external screen and press Ctrl-Alt-Arrow (presumably up)...

weepy wrote:just move cursor on external screen and press Ctrl-Alt-Arrow (presumably up)...

Hmmm. Thanks, but doesn't work for me. In cloned mode, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Arrow flips both screens, so I get the external display right, but now the internal display is upside down.