When it comes to screen orientation, Chromebooks feel no peculiarity in borrowing a popular quality trait from Android devices besides comprising a direct integration with the Google Play Store. Quite fortunately, it’s undemanding to auto-rotate your screen on Chrome OS, similar to what you’d do on your mobile phone switching between portrait and landscape modes.
It may also be where you’ve accidentally pressed random buttons on your keyboard, and your screen has just swung out of order. Getting it back into the usual routine is as easy as rotating it again for any reason you like. In this article, therefore, we’ll teach you this handy tool so you don’t ever have problems related to screen orientation again.
There are a couple of methods to rotate your screen. Starting from the easy one, we’ll get to both of them so that you know all your options.
Option #1: Using Your Keyboard to Rotate Chromebook Screen
Right off the bat, you don’t have to wander anywhere other than your Chromebook’s trusty keyboard if you’re set out to rotate your device’s screen, but if you must, the second method after this one has you covered. A specific key combination makes it possible to optimize your screen orientation; however, you like.
So, all you have to do is press and hold the key shortcut of “CTRL + Shift + Refresh.” The former is the third key from the left on the top-most row of your keyboard. Upon successful input, the screen will rotate at an angle of 90°. If you want to orient your screen at other angles than that, such as 180°, or even 270°, which shifts the screen totally to the right, you’ll have to input that key combination one or two more times, respectively.
That’s the first method out of the way! Let’s get on to another way of rotating your screen. It might seem a bit longer, but rest assured, it has a rewarding benefit to it that the keyboard method does not. Please continue reading to find out what it is.
Option #2: Using your Device’s Settings
This is the second method of calibrating your screen orientation that we’re going to get to. The following steps will take it from here.
1) To begin, open your Chromebook’s “Settings” by accessing them through the Launcher or using your “Status Bar.”
Opening “Settings”
2) Continue by clicking on “Device” on the left column when your “Settings” open up.
Clicking on “Device”
3) Once you do that, you’ll be taken to a section where your device’s settings can be tinkered with. You’ll have to click on the arrow beside “Displays” here to proceed.
Clicking on “Displays”
4) As soon as you do that, you’ll be taken to the “Display” settings of your Chromebook. Here, under the “Built-in display” subheading, you’ll see “Orientation.” Click on the drop-down arrow beside it, and you’ll see multiple options here. Choose whichever you like, and your screen will rotate accordingly.
Choosing Screen Orientation
That’s about it as far as rotating your Chromebook’s screen is concerned! We hope that by now, you’ve thoroughly understood both methods of optimizing your device’s orientation.
However, what’s interesting about rotating your screen by going to your device’s “Display” settings is that you’ll also be able to change the orientation of any external monitor there that’s connected to your Chromebook. The settings for that display will appear right when you’ve connected any TV or monitor to your Chrome OS. This makes the long route useful for several reasons, out of which convenience and usability are a few.
Although screen rotation can come in handy when you wish to lie the device flat and make the screen visible for anyone sitting adjacent to you, you need to know that the functionality of the touchpad changes concerning rotation. For instance, if you rotate your screen to 270°, going down on the touchpad will move the cursor right, and if you intend to go up, the cursor will move towards the left. A Chromebook with a touchscreen will work wonders here, but other than that, you’ll have to make do.
