Comments on: 6 Ways To Set Up Dual Monitors To Be More Productive

By: Tzvi

Tzvi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:05:32 +0000

I found that I can stretch the Word window to cover both monitors (I have one above the other). This enables me to use “split window” to view two parts of the same file. Alt-tabbing a different program will bring a second program to the front of one of the monitors. The Word document remains on top in the other monitor.

By: Tzvi

Tzvi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:43:20 +0000

I seem to have found a solution. I’ll have to test it out to see if it works well though. I can stretch the Word window over both screens (I already mentioned that I’m trying second monitor above the first). After stretching word down or up thru both monitors, I can use the “split window” view. Afterwards, I can bring a second window to the front of the top or bottom monitor while Word remains at the front of the other one. Like I wrote, the jury is out on this, details later.

By: Tzvi

Tzvi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:28:37 +0000

Set up a second monitor. At the moment I have it above my laptop monitor. Took a few minutes to figure out how to set it up. One (minor) issue that crept up – I’ve been using wordtab (I think I saw that on makeuseof.com too). One of the things I’d like to do is have two word documents open in front of me – one on each monitor. It looks like I’ll have to disable wordtab for that. Any ideas?

Thanks again for all the information.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:09:03 +0000

As an engineer, I use 2 monitors at work all the time. It is especially useful when I have an Autocad drawing open on one monitor and use the second monitor with Excel to create a bill of material for the drawing. All the engineers have 2 monitors now since it proved to be extremely effiecient use of our time.

By: Tim Lenahan

Tim Lenahan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:33:28 +0000

No prob! Check out the next article "6 MORE Ways To Set Up Dual Monitors To Be More Productive"

By: Tzvi

Tzvi — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:20:50 +0000

I remembered seeing this header on the newsletter, but didn’t read the content. Today I was trying to figure out how to work more effectively on my website when I have to keep switching between multiple windows and I remembered it. Looked it over and read up on dual monitors. I think I’m going to give it a try. Thanks.

By: kelvin

kelvin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:02:45 +0000

great article.

i’ve been using dual-monitors for the past 10 years or so, ever since collage; and can’t seem to get work done without it.

just wanted to point out some tools i use regularly in order to enhance my dual-monitor experience…

1. UltraMon (by Realtime Soft Ltd.), allows taskbar to be displayed on both monitors as well as synchronizing screen-savers and a lot of other neat features.

2. Synergy (not sure the company, but can easily by googled), is a tool which acts as a virtual KVM (keyboard-video-mouse).. all you need is a private network setup between two or more computers, and synergy will automatically share the keyboard/mouse between the two computers. This tool is used less often; however very useful when i have two computers hooked up, one to each monitor, and both sharing the single mouse/keyboard on my desktop.

btw, i am using Windwos7-64bit and both of these tool works great..

By: lizaoreo

lizaoreo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:50:00 +0000

Yeah, that works great. I used to do that at my old job before they decided to take Multiple monitors away (The head IT guy there deemed it to costly so we took all the dual monitors and put them in a closet to sit). It was a great tool though, I was able to have the remote desktop of the user I was helping on one screen and my tools, email, problem ticket information, reference guide, or whatever else I needed, up on the second screen.

Michael

By: Michael Reid

Michael Reid — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:54:25 +0000

I had 4 monitors in my last work place (this is 4 years ago) and have 6 in my current position (2 up top and 4 in a row below). Got two 23″ monitors at home – can’t work with just one now!

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:38:59 +0000

I’m still getting used to the 2 monitors, let alone multiplying the desktops!

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:18:17 +0000

Tim I use a dual monitor set up at work and in addition to that I use the virtual desktop manager, which is a part of the powertoys for windows XP pack. This little “toy” lets you not only see 2 screens but actually 8. It gives you 4 different screen set ups to look at. I can basically open up 8 different word documents one on each screen and switch back and forth between any of them. You can have 4 different wall papers going also. It puts icons numbered 1-4 as well as an icon with a window pane on the tool bar. The window pane icon lets you see all 4 different screenshots at once. Pretty cool how you use it is up to you.

By: etescartz

etescartz — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:47:19 +0000

Haha!Playing HoN i see.. HoN FTW! I have dual monitor setup at work..although they’re both meant for doing my work faster.(i’m a tech support operator for an ISP) i use one monitor as my work desktop and the second one as remote desktop to my Ubuntu Machine at home..

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:33:35 +0000

In defence of number 5, as a blogger I feel the need to stay in tune to what’s going on in my social networks. Dual monitors helps me stay organized while still keeping up.

I agree with you on number 6. I’ve tried watching tutorials and such on YouTube on my second monitor and just can’t do both. I suppose if the task was menial it might be a different story.

Troubleshooting with helpfiles and support forums seems like an amiable use. Hadn’t really thought of that!

By: Matt Dana

Matt Dana — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:13:22 +0000

I’m tri-mon at home and dual at work. I actually really miss the third monitor when I don’t have it. I use it to hold a number of useful Vista sidebar gadgets like my Facebook and Twitter feeds, a calculator, google reader, unit converter, and so on. It also comes in handy as a dedicated screen for testing in IE while using firefox/firebug on screen 2 and my text editor on screen 1.

By: youthworker

youthworker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:59:52 +0000

I like your ideas 1-4, but can’t help thinking how ironic it is that an article about productivity suggests enabling the ability to work while glancing up to see whoâ€™s saying what on Twitter or Facebook, or watching videos while you work…
Anyway, after the day I’ve just had, I’d have to say that a big advantage of dual screens would be being able to troubleshoot a problem on one monitor, while having the support forums or help file open on the other. I suspect more users would use help files if they could do this.