Just curious how many of you are running two monitors at your workstation.
For example: Scripts, Word docs on one monitor, Studio '09 on the other? Or is the layout more based on your active applications?
I've found that two monitors really help for webinars where one screen is the live, presentation screen and the other is used to stage examples or talking points.
Anyway, if your'e running two monitors, how do you manage your workspaces?
Fireworks, Chrome and Klok at right. Sometimes Camtasia is here as well.
PowerPoint, Excel, Word (storyboards, change request status, and SME notes, respectively) and Audacity at left
Outlook and main authoring tools (Articulate, Lectora, myUdutu, etc) in the center. An open Dropbox folder usually rests here, but tends to float to whichever monitor makes the most sense for it to rest.
This is my setup at work. Once you go to this setup, however, it's really kind of hard to go back to one monitor..which is why I ordered two more monitors for my home office over the weekend.
Three monitors! Now that's a power setup. I've used two but mostly use my single, 30".
What's funny, is that I will often disconnect monitor and use only the laptop. Something about the smaller screen seems to help filter out the noise that comes with the larger screens
Although, I'm intrigued by the idea of three monitors...
I agree with Craig. Once I went with dual monitors it's hard to work on anything else. I find that it's more of a constant shuffle between screens depending on what I am working on at the time. Nobody mentioned where they put their tunes. I usually have iTunes or Pandora running on stage 2. I think I might need the 3rd monitor like Craig mentioned for my tunes.
Oddly, I usually use my iPod shuffle (the little clip-on one) or my phone; this way, if i need to get up to get coffee or whatever, I don't lose the 'mental cocoon' that I've created for myself.
I'm super super jealous of Craig for having three monitors! I have two and I could NEVER go back to one. In fact, I started my current job in February after having worked for 3 years with dual monitors and when I got to my desk, the first thing I asked my boss was if I could bring in a second monitor. When you're incorporating comments, it is literally the best invention in the world. Here's my typical setup:
Monitor 1:
PowerPoint/Articulate Product Suite
Email
Monitor 2:
Word documents (client/SME comments, source material, etc)
I'm with the majority here using dual monitors. Usually they are set up as follows:
Powerpoint / Presenter
IE, Engage or Quizmaker, project folder
I can get by on one screen at home using my mac as hot corners make it easy enough to switch, but at work I would seriously struggle without two screens for my PC. As for tunes I use my ipod. Our IT policy is too restrictive around music/streaming so its just easier to bring my own.
In order to run dual or triple monitors you need a compatible graphic card. As long as the motherboard will support the card, it really doesn't matter how old the PC or MAC is. My HDMI monitor cable feeds off one port and has a splitter. Then I just set the dual monitor up via the control panel / display icon. On my home PC I actually have dual SLI Nvidia GT9800 cards that boosts graphic performance and I am able to easily run two monitors. However many gamers actually use three to six Nvidia SLI Cards to run games and I can only imagine just how fast these games run.
Two monitors here, throughout our department. (Wish we had three!)
I use the monitors somewhat "freely" but here's a "snapshot" of my daily use:
Monitor 1: PPT open with the window spread over monitor 1 and 2: On the left is the PPT storyboard, on the right is the Articulate version of the course I'm building
Monitor 2: "behind" the PPT, e-mail, file and file resource folders open, Photoshop open and minimized for on-the-fly image edits.
Minimized below may be 10 other document folders, word docs, etc.
(which is why I wish I had three monitors, it's always all going on at once for me.)
Edit: Oh... and I also have a laptop that sometime serves as e-mail and always as my music... my iPod is hooked up to it and it's on a wireless network that isn't behind our firewall like my production machine is, so I can view tutorials and other necessary-but-firewall-blocked stuff. So I SORT of have three monitors but the laptop monitor is no good for quality viewing of graphics.
I would love to be able to have powerpoint on each monitor,
Phil
Phil - you can, even with 2007 (works for Excel too). If you have two PPTs open:
Click on the View tab
Drag your PPT window to cover both screens
Click on Arrange All
Now that I'm trying to actually do this to make sure these steps are in the right order, I can't get PPT to open up on my computer....argh. Will have to reboot. Anyway, you can view more than one PPTs at once utilizing multiple screens.
When I'm not at home I rock the portable dual monitors with a netbook and an iPad. This isn't a true dual monitor set up in the sense that I can move stuff from one screen to another but it serves me very well and allows me to be the multitasking fool that I am. Here I am working AND checking my Blockbuster queue.
I would love to be able to have powerpoint on each monitor,
Phil
Phil - you can, even with 2007 (works for Excel too). If you have two PPTs open:
Click on the View tab
Drag your PPT window to cover both screens
Click on Arrange All
Now that I'm trying to actually do this to make sure these steps are in the right order, I can't get PPT to open up on my computer....argh. Will have to reboot. Anyway, you can view more than one PPTs at once utilizing multiple screens.
52 Replies
I use two monitors for many reasons:
1) Chrome monitor 1, Firefox monitor 2
2) SME change requests monitor 1, PPT slides monitor 2
3) PPT slides monitor 1, quiz question document monitor 2
4) Audacity monitor 1, lesson script monitor 2
Three monitors:
This is my setup at work. Once you go to this setup, however, it's really kind of hard to go back to one monitor..which is why I ordered two more monitors for my home office over the weekend.
Three monitors! Now that's a power setup. I've used two but mostly use my single, 30".
What's funny, is that I will often disconnect monitor and use only the laptop. Something about the smaller screen seems to help filter out the noise that comes with the larger screens
Although, I'm intrigued by the idea of three monitors...
I agree with Craig. Once I went with dual monitors it's hard to work on anything else. I find that it's more of a constant shuffle between screens depending on what I am working on at the time. Nobody mentioned where they put their tunes. I usually have iTunes or Pandora running on stage 2. I think I might need the 3rd monitor like Craig mentioned for my tunes.
Oddly, I usually use my iPod shuffle (the little clip-on one) or my phone; this way, if i need to get up to get coffee or whatever, I don't lose the 'mental cocoon' that I've created for myself.
I run two monitors, typically I lay them out like this:
1. Outlook, PPT, Fireworks, Engage, and Quizmaker
2. IE, my content for online class or quizmaker quizzes, and misc programs
I love that I can roll from one screen to the other with what I'm cutting and pasting. I use it to compare similar docs too.
I agree no way could I go back to one monitor. Very little investment for a lot of efficiency!
Oh yeah and, of course, I can read my e-learning hero emails on one screen and open the links on the other one!
I'm super super jealous of Craig for having three monitors! I have two and I could NEVER go back to one. In fact, I started my current job in February after having worked for 3 years with dual monitors and when I got to my desk, the first thing I asked my boss was if I could bring in a second monitor. When you're incorporating comments, it is literally the best invention in the world. Here's my typical setup:
Monitor 1:
PowerPoint/Articulate Product Suite
Email
Monitor 2:
Word documents (client/SME comments, source material, etc)
Excel spreadsheets (source material, schedules, etc)
PDFs (source material)
Internet Explorer
Miscellaneous other junk
Now if I could only convince my boss to let me switch to Mac with Windows running in Parallels, my setup would be complete...
Agreed - that would be living the dream.
I would love to be able to have powerpoint on each monitor,
Phil
You can, with PowerPoint 2010.
thanks Craig, I have 2010 on my laptop. unfortunately only 2007 on my desktop, time to start a fight with my it team
Phil
That's the spirit, Phil
I'm with the majority here using dual monitors. Usually they are set up as follows:
I can get by on one screen at home using my mac as hot corners make it easy enough to switch, but at work I would seriously struggle without two screens for my PC. As for tunes I use my ipod. Our IT policy is too restrictive around music/streaming so its just easier to bring my own.
Blair
Try hooking up your desktop monitor to your laptop like you would a projector.
Two monitors makes it so much easier. Usually Articulate/Content program on one, source (PPT, Word ect) on the other, Photoshop almost always open.
I'm running two monitors but I wish I had three.
Monitor one
Monitor two
However there are times when I'm troubleshooting phone logs and a third screen would be helpful.
Are most newer, high-end systems shipping with three monitor support? Or is an external card and fan upgrade required?
In order to run dual or triple monitors you need a compatible graphic card. As long as the motherboard will support the card, it really doesn't matter how old the PC or MAC is. My HDMI monitor cable feeds off one port and has a splitter. Then I just set the dual monitor up via the control panel / display icon. On my home PC I actually have dual SLI Nvidia GT9800 cards that boosts graphic performance and I am able to easily run two monitors. However many gamers actually use three to six Nvidia SLI Cards to run games and I can only imagine just how fast these games run.
Two monitors here, throughout our department. (Wish we had three!)
I use the monitors somewhat "freely" but here's a "snapshot" of my daily use:
Monitor 1: PPT open with the window spread over monitor 1 and 2: On the left is the PPT storyboard, on the right is the Articulate version of the course I'm building
Monitor 2: "behind" the PPT, e-mail, file and file resource folders open, Photoshop open and minimized for on-the-fly image edits.
Minimized below may be 10 other document folders, word docs, etc.
(which is why I wish I had three monitors, it's always all going on at once for me.)
Edit: Oh... and I also have a laptop that sometime serves as e-mail and always as my music... my iPod is hooked up to it and it's on a wireless network that isn't behind our firewall like my production machine is, so I can view tutorials and other necessary-but-firewall-blocked stuff. So I SORT of have three monitors but the laptop monitor is no good for quality viewing of graphics.
Phil Mayor said:
I would love to be able to have powerpoint on each monitor,
Phil
Phil - you can, even with 2007 (works for Excel too). If you have two PPTs open:
Now that I'm trying to actually do this to make sure these steps are in the right order, I can't get PPT to open up on my computer....argh. Will have to reboot. Anyway, you can view more than one PPTs at once utilizing multiple screens.
There is another way to have three monitors without buying a dual graphics card. Take a look at Matrox's "TripleHead2Go Digitial Edition". Found at: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/
When I'm not at home I rock the portable dual monitors with a netbook and an iPad. This isn't a true dual monitor set up in the sense that I can move stuff from one screen to another but it serves me very well and allows me to be the multitasking fool that I am. Here I am working AND checking my Blockbuster queue.
Nice. I'd rule the freaking Starbucks with that setup.
Yep. It's a great way to mimic my dual 24" monitors I have at home. They kind of spoiled me.
thank you, will give it a try
Phil