Are you using dual monitors? If so, how?

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

You all are cracking me up - and making me want to go out and buy another monitor right this second!  I spend at least half my time away from my office  (which is in my house) and I just work on my 17” laptop screen and run the things I need to see side-by-side.  I have a monitor at home but almost never use it because I like to work sitting on the couch instead of at my desk.  But maybe if I got a 2^nd monitor, I’d love it so much that I’d actually use my desk…

On the other hand, it sounds like many of you are using the second monitor for multitasking (Justin J) and to be honest, I need to do less multitasking, not more, so maybe it’s not such a good idea for me.

Primary monitor -

Most everything that I need to touch frequently throughout the day: Email, Articulate, Adobe CS5, video editing app, the stuff I'm just knee deep working in.

Second monitor -

Stuff that I only need to come back to every once in a while, or need for a distraction every now and then : Calendar, tunes, news, facebook, Articulate community, twitter, etc.

Will also heavily use the second monitor as folks have already mentioned - comparing docs, copying and pasting and the sorts.  It's also nice for website authoring (dreamweaver on one screen and the site on the other).

I read somewhere that having dual monitors makes a person 33% more productive, but I'm not sure if there are any concrete studies done on the subject

Believe it or not, I am the only one in my office rockin' dual monitors.

I have offered to hook up others on my team with a similar set-up...no takers!

Once you go to dual or trip monitors like C.Wigg...you never go back!

I keep my articulate studio open on one and my adobe CS on the other...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the dual monitors - and it's one of the negatives of working at home! Have a big laptop screen, but still not enough screen real-estate for design work.  My typical setup:

Monitor 1 (left): Outlook, chat,  Photoshop or Soundbooth, depending on what I'm working on, word docs/PPTs to feed the project, maybe FireFox or IE (I switch those around depending on what I'm working on)   & if iTunes is open, it's usu. behind all this stuff

Monitor 2 (right): this is my hard-working design monitor for main content, so Captivate is usu. here (if I had Articulate, it would be here!) and FireFox or IE, windows explorer windows, MindManager (but those move around too)

I don't think I would be anywhere NEAR as productive without the 2 monitors - and they're nice and big.  Being a visual person, and a designer, I'm all about the screen real estate.  Remember Mary Poppins? "I'd much rather see all of my face at the same time, thank you!" or something to that effect - same principle! I want to SEE as much as possible, right next to each other if I'm working in multiple tools.

AMANDA! You are MY HERO!!!  I did exactly what you said and it TOTALLY worked!!!  I am unable to articulate HOW happy this makes me!!  Saving SO much back/forth and frustration to put together what SHOULD BE a simple PPT.  THANK YOU!!!  THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!