Closed lid operation, how?!

When i'm using my PowerBook at work, i usually prefer to work on a larger LCD screen, yet I don't really like multiple screens - it doesn't work well with a 17" LCD and a 12" LCD. I'd rather be able to have the PoweBook closed, and just have it power the external LCD. How do you do this?

I've tried turning mirroring OFF, but it still sleeps the machine when I close the lid. It obviously isn't too obvious - can someone tell me how you do it?

Cheers,

Steve

Close the lid part of the way so the backlight and display turn off. Click on your external mouse and wait for your external display to wake up. Then lift the display up and it should remain off. Some people say it's ok to close the lid all the way but I'd be worried about heat issues on the display and I prefer to close it almost all the way to trick the pbook into turning off the display.

This works fine for my Powerbook, so I would assume it would work for you. It was posted back in 2004.

http://www.macosx.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-46236.html

I run my powerbook closed quite a bit and the heat isn't an issue coming from the top. All of the heat comes out the bottom

plugging or unplugging a USB device or pressing a key on a USB mouse or KB will wake the powerbook with the lid closed

this is intentional for this reason

It may just be newer Powerbooks, but you're supposed to just close the lid and let it sleep, then plugging in an external display should wake it with that being the only display in use.

I always assumed that you must plug in the external display and a keyboard/mouse for the closed lid operation to function. You would then press a key or click the mouse to activate the function.