The virtues of a second monitor

The vast majority of computer users in the Waikato use only one monitor for each PC. When I suggest that they trial using a second screen most are surprised that they could. Many could not see the benefit.

All the workers at HTG have dual monitors. Nobody at HTG can live without them. One has three of them. Why?

It’s all to do with productivity. The ability to display e-mail on one monitor, a browser window and a Word document on a second, and then to seamlessly move their cursor from screen to screen, is a benefit that HTG staff will not easily give up on. Where you have to compare, or cut and paste, data between two documents (eg two Word or Excel files or between Word and Excel) the effort to do so can be cut dramatically when you have two monitors side by side.

Another benefit I find is that I can leave my MS Outlook permanently open one screen while working on another screen. When emails come in I can see them arriving without having to alt-tab from the other screen I am already working on.

To set up dual monitors you will need, firstly, two monitors. If you are using a notebook then the first monitor is your laptop screen and you need to procure an external screen as the second monitor. If you are running a desktop with one screen I recommend that you obtain a second monitor of the same specs if not the same brand and model. This is so that the colours, brightness, and contrast match on both monitors.

You then need a video card that will support two monitors or two separate video cards so that one monitor can be plugged into each one. I recommend using a card that supports two monitors on its own because they typically have good drivers and features that make it easier to set up two monitors. There are a lot of video cards out there that support two monitors and they are inexpensive.

Finally, your Windows must be XP, Vista or 7. Windows 2000 does it too but to a lesser extent.

Two monitors are an incredible productivity tool. Given that some 19” LCD monitors can be bought for under $ 200, the payback on the investment can be just a few weeks’ use.

Like many ideas in IT, in the right situation this is one technology that can give you an unbelievable return on your investment.

By Alan Chew

Managing Director of the Houston Technology Group

This article appeared in the October 2009 edition of the Waikato Business News, for which Alan writes a regular column as "Your IT Adviser".