Work with multiple-monitor setups and define your audio sources

What You’ll Need:

>> Mac OS X 10.6+
>> multiple monitors (optional)
>> multiple audio input/output sources (also optional)
>> 15 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Unless your reason for owning a Mac is to occasionally lovingly stroke it when the mood strikes, chances are you consider the most critical aspects of Mac ownership to be what you see on the screen and the sounds it emits. Settings for video and audio output have sensible defaults, but both can be adjusted by using System Preferences.

Work with multiple-monitor setups and define your audio sources

Open System Preferences and you’ll see Displays and Sound both listed in the Hardware section. These are used to access settings that affect your monitor or monitors and your Mac’s audio output. (Note to OS X Lion users: we are assuming in this tutorial that you haven’t disabled access to these panes by using the Customize functionality. If you have, you can access them by going to the View menu, or make them visible again by going to View > Customize and checking the relevant items.)

When it comes to dealing with displays, settings are generally straightforward; although multiple displays provide a little extra complexity, since you can rearrange them. However, audio input and output can cause trouble -- it’s common for us to be told how someone "cannot hear" their friends in a messaging app, or get audio from a USB microphone into GarageBand. This walkthrough shows how to deal with input and output settings when you’ve multiple possible audio sources; and for displays, we show you how to change monitor resolution and arrange multiple monitors.

The pictures show OS X Lion, but the Displays and Sound System Preferences are almost identical under Snow Leopard, bar one minor change in Sound Effects: there’s no Play Front Row sound effects checkbox in OS X Lion.

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How to Adjust Displays and Sound

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  1. Change Resolutions

  Most displays have a default resolution. It’s best not to change this, but if you need to amend the setting, open Displays, click Display and choose one. If you’ve multiple displays, each gets a window -- click Gather Windows to move them to your primary display.

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  2. Display Arrangement

  If you’ve multiple displays, click Arrangement. Each monitor will be shown as a blue rectangular "screen". Drag and drop the screens to change their positions. There’s nothing to stop you putting one on top of the other rather than side by side.

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  3. Set a Primary Display

  In the Arrangement tab, one of the screens will have a white strip across its top. This denotes the OS X menu bar and defines the primary display. To switch it to another one, click-hold the strip and drag it to the other screen. The change takes effect immediately.

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  4. Mirror Your Displays

  An alternative to a standard multiple-monitor setup is to mirror your displays. Do so by clicking the Mirror Displays button. Your displays will all show the same content but will adjust to the lowest common denominator screen resolution before doing so.

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  5. Set Sound Effects

  Open Sound and click Sound Effects. To change the alert sound, select an alternative to Funk. Use the Play sound effects through menu to define which connected audio output device the effects should play through. Use the slider to amend the volume of alerts to suit.

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  6. Define Input Sources

  By default, Apple notebooks and iMacs will have an internal microphone as the initial input source. You can change this in the Input tab. Select your chosen input source from the list. Note that some apps (such as Skype) override this with their own settings.

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  7. Test Input Levels

  With input devices, it’s a good idea to check levels to ensure you don’t end up with distorted audio. If using a microphone, select it and speak into it. You’ll see the Input level gauge rise and fall. Adjust the Input volume slider if it always sits at the maximum level.

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  8. Define Output Sources

  If you’ve connected your Mac to an output source but can’t hear any sound, click Output and ensure your output source is selected. Many speaker sets run from the headphones port, but some are USB-based; test each setting if you’re unsure which it is.

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  Quick Tip

  Both Displays and Sound have options for displaying menu bar extras. The former is shown as a screen; click it for resolutions and mirroring options. Sound is shown as a volume slider.

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