Getting the Most Out of Multiple Monitors

Occasionally, debate will rage over the question of using two or more monitors. In my judgment, there's no debate: No other single change to your desktop can have so profound an effect on your productivity. When I tell this to people that have never tried multiple displays, though, I get the same question every time: "What's it good for?" Well, here are four ways to make that second monitor pay for itself.

1. Compare documents side-by-side. Sure, you can sort of do this by tiling two documents on the same monitor, but it's horribly inefficient. With two displays, you can maximize both docs and see the full width of the page without constantly scrolling from side to side or shrinking things beyond recognition.

2. Keep e-mail in one display and your work document in another. This is my default configuration; I always keep Outlook on the right monitor and Word or Excel on the left. This way I can keep an eye on mission-critical e-mail and still get my work done. (Yes, I know that is a violation of my rule about scheduling e-mail sessions, but it's the way I like to work.)

3. Learn Windows 7's keyboard shortcuts for multiple monitor users. Like to "snap" windows to the sides of the screen to automatically set them to half the width of the display? So do I. At first, it appears that doesn't work on the edges of the monitors that face each other, but it does. Select a window and press Win+left arrow or Win+right arrow, as appropriate. You can end up with four evenly tiled windows with no fuss!

4. Don't forget that there are tools you can use to do even more with dual monitors. Check out Rick's post on multiple monitors for the full scoop.

Photo by DamnedNice