My last 2 posts was about using a netbook as an ebook reader and one of the subject covered was screen rotation. Rotating the screen of the netbook does not mean physically rotating the whole netbook but rotating the text on the screen. This was explained to some of my non-computer literate friends of mine who read my blog. I explained to them (plus an actual demonstration using my own netbook) that, by rotating the text, it would make it easier to read an ebook since it would emulate the 'page' of a book. I also explained that by using the Ctrl-Alt-Arrow Keys combination and/or a free utility under Windows, it was possible to rotate the text to any position - even 'upside-down' if they want.
Since my friends were confused about screen rotation, I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate more on this subject for the benefit of my readers. The objective of screen rotation is to adjust the display of text (or pictures) on the screen clockwise or anti-clockwise. This would effectively cause the normal 'wide-screen landscape' display of a netbook to turn into a 'narrow-screen portrait' display. How does one achieve this on a netbook?
[NOTE: If you have installed EeRotate, disable it temporarily by by right-clicking on the display icon in your tray and selecting 'Suspend Hotkeys'. This must be done before executing any of the steps below.]
Assuming that the netbook is running Windows (either XP, Vista or Windows 7), pressing the following key combinations will cause the screen to rotate:
Ctrl-Alt-Right-Arrow: Rotate screen CLOCKWISE by 90 degrees
Ctrl-Alt-Left-Arrow: Rotate screen ANTI-CLOCKWISE by 90 degrees
Ctrl-Alt-Down-Arrow: Rotate screen UPSIDE-DOWN by 180 degrees
Ctrl-Alt-Up-Arrow: Restore screen to NORMAL position (0 degrees)
Notice that the trackpad does not automatically follow the screen rotation - it will remain in their default setting. To illustrate this, first rotate the screen clockwise 90 degrees (press the Ctrl-Alt-Right-Arrow key combinations), and hold the netbook sideways so that the keyboard is on your right side. Now use the thumb of your right hand to move the cursor (pointer) on the screen. Instinct would indicate that moving the thumb up or down would move the cursor up or down but in actuality, it only moves the cursor right or left. This is because that the 'orientation' of the trackpad does not 'follow' the screen rotation - it remains at its original 'orientation'. You have to keep this in mind whenever you use the Ctrl-Alt-Right-Arrow (by itself without using any other utility) keys to rotate the screen.
If you have a USB mouse, connect it to a USB port on your netbook, and while holding the netbook sideways so that the keyboard is on your right side (I know this an awkward position, but bear with me for a while), move the mouse up and down. Notice that the cursor also moves up and down - so using a mouse will not affect cursor movement but using a mouse is NOT an exactly a 'portable' solution for reading an ebook. So disconnect the mouse for now.
For the next demo, rotate the screen anti-clockwise 90 degrees (press the Ctrl-Alt-Left-Arrow key combinations), and hold the netbook sideways so that the keyboard is on your left side. Now use the thumb of your left hand to move the cursor (pointer) on the screen. Instinct would indicate that moving the thumb up or down would move the cursor up or down but in actuality, it only moves the cursor right or left. Again, this is because that the 'orientation' of the trackpad does not 'follow' the screen rotation - it remains at its original 'orientation'. You have to keep this in mind whenever you use the Ctrl-Alt-Left-Arrow keys to rotate the screen.
Return the screen to its 'normal' position using the Ctrl-Alt-Up-Arrow key combination. If you have not downloaded and installed the EeRotate utility, do so now at http://sites.google.com/site/vkedwardli/eeerotate. For those that has installed it, re-enable it by right-clicking on the screen icon in the tray and clearing the 'Suspend Hotkeys'.
Now, again rotate the screen clockwise 90 degrees (press the Ctrl-Alt-Right-Arrow key combinations), and hold the netbook sideways so that the keyboard is on your right side. Now use the thumb of your right hand to move the cursor (pointer) on the screen. This time the cursor moves as you expect - up means up, down means down, etc. The EeRotate utility has managed to rotate the trackpad along with the screen! Unfortunately, this does not apply if you rotate the screen anti-clockwise 90 degrees. Press the Ctrl-Alt-Left-Arrow key combinations and hold the netbook sideways so that the keyboard is on your left side. Now use the thumb of your left hand to move the cursor (pointer) on the screen. Notice that cursor moves opposite of what you expect - thumb up means cursor down, etc. It looks as if EeRotate did rotate the trackpad but in the 'wrong' way. So if you use EeRotate to rotate the screen anti-clockwise 90 degrees, just remember that the trackpad behaves opposite to that what you expect. Again I hope the author of the EeRotate utility fix this as soon as possible.
In conclusion, although the EeRotate utility has some limitation in the anti-clockwise 90 degrees trackpad orientation, it remains a highly recommended utility to install if one is serious in using the netbook as an ebook reader. Linux users do not have the ability to rotate the screen as easily as Windows users - a situation that I deplore but have to live with.
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