Bind an extra mouse button to the key for UltraMon’s “move to next monitor”, Jeff. You’ll never look back. And ditto on AutoHotKey being the power tool for Windows. A script for “does this application exist? If so, focus it, otherwise launch it” is indispensable. Also, RocketDock (small mem footprint) configured to be nothing more than a preview dock of my minimized windows that pops up when I want and keeps my main taskbar focused and uncluttered with just my restored windows is wonderful. Combined with say, Taskbar Shuffle (again small footprint) to provide the basic feature of middle click close and “we’re in business”, no robots. Oh and maybe Switcher for Expos, just as soon as he releases that version with the close window feature. I should throw this layout on my blog just so I can have someplace to link people to… that’s about all it’s for anyways.
PS. I bought the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 on your advice, I love it! Thanks!
Oh, and StrokeIt for extraordinarily fast window minimizing, maximizing, closing, and all sorts of other things for the mouse. No reason to move my mouse up to those buttons…
I’m visually impaired and that drives my need for a larger display more than any other factor. I’d have no problem running the resolution on a 22" widescreen as high as its native resolution, but most Microsoft solutions let you scale your fonts bigger but leave everything else (icons, control surfaces, etc.) at their tiny native size. IE 7, though, finally seems to get it right.
It’s also not generally appreciated that until very recently, there were almost no apps or desktops optimized for widescreen. We have a cheap and nasty 19" widescreen LCD in our server room; the server it’s on has no video support whatever for that aspect ratio. Result: Not pretty at all, but it’s sure convenient for me and my eyesight! I intend to get a little better-quality monitor when the time comes.
I’m packing a 24" LCD widescreen an a 19" standard LCD.
I typically have my code editor full screen on the 24" and then a SQL Enterprise manager, browser window or documentation open full screen on the 19" monitor.
You should see the back to school specials at our local Best Buy. There is an Acer desktop with a 17-inch CRT monitor, for those who can’t afford the extra 70 bucks for a 17 inch LCD.
Of course that system is the exception. Most of the computers are laptops with 15-inch displays and I think the trend is that more and more people are buying one of these and not bothering with a desktop anymore. The larger trend might actually be toward smaller displays not bigger ones.
I made a concious decision to ditch my desktop at work, and work only with a laptop. Now I can work anywhere and the experience is identical, modulo some network performance.
I thus work with a single smallish screen. I develop software, and I don’t need to see a lot of code all at once. Instead, one becomes able to switch to new contexts fast, jump to different code points quickly. Ideally, one’s invidual methods are small enough to fit on a single page.
The mental picture and context becomes the large “display” that is maintained. Using tools like Emacs that encourage fast context switches helps as well.
I see some colleagues at work with their multiple monitors, and they take a hit when they need to work remotely, since they are conditioned to need them to work properly.
My setup is a Linux system with two 19" displays. This is how I manage my space. I have 8 Virutal desktops. Each one is dedicated to a project. The left hand display is what I call my sticky desktop. Anything that I need to follow me around are put on that screen, and then set to follow me to each desktop. The right and screen is my work area.
I typically have 4 projects going at once, have my IM client on the sticky side, and a xterm open with vim running for notes.
This setup has worked perfectly for me for two years now. Never could justify a third display, not even sure what I would use it for, but I have to admit the idea of the center display being the focal point, and the other two displays being off to the side is appealing.
SlimKeys (http://www.slimcode.com/slimKEYS/) provides excellent control using keyboard combinations. I’ve been using it with a 24" main lcd and 2 x 20" lcd’s in portrait mode on the sides, and have been very happy. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much need for the other plugins that come with the app.
One of the advantages of small monitors, ironically, is that because they’re small, they nudge users into a simpler, windowless method of working. "
Sorry, but I’ve got to disagree. Single window is really only good for people who can’t understand windows. Once you do, it’s almost always more efficient to have multiple screens open.
Case in point: I started at my current company doing data entry, and did it a lot faster than everyone else because I would open the windows and arrange them once at the beginning of the day so that I could see all the important parts of every window at all times. It’s the equivalent of one of those little clipboard dealies you sit next to your monitor.
Once I explained the concept to a couple co-workers, along with how to cut and paste, they got also got a lot faster even without using high enough resolution to prevent overlap. The important part was understanding how to move between multiple windows. An understanding which will never arise with a “simpler, windowless method of working.”
Babying users with single windows is easier, but not more efficient in most cases.
funny how Matchbox window manager starts to make much more sense now.
It was made for small screen portable devices, but with some clever hacking, it could be worked to work like you’re saying…
This completely overlooks mobile users. Mobile screens will always be small by necessity. I’m on a 13" screen right now, but my computer – a desktop replacement – is 4 pounds and goes anywhere. Ultra-mobile PCs have even smaller screens.
What we really need are scalable UIs. I should be able to grow or shrink my UI just by dragging a slider, and ALL the visual elements should scale.
Unfortunately, many apps still hard-code display metrics, or use controls or fonts that don’t scale. You can see this when you try to set a screen to a high rez and also crank up the DPI. Lots of visual elements break.
I recently upgraded from 17" CRT to a 22" widescreen LCD at home. In many ways it’s awesome, but in terms of work productivity (window layout and sizing), I still beleive that my two 17" LCD (non-wide) setup at work works better.
1680x1050 just seems to be an odd res. for opening multiple windows next to each other (compared to @work: Eclipse with detached windows split across 2 LCDs || Outlook on one LCD PL/SQL (or whatever) on another).
Thanks for the links to Winsplit GridMove, I’ll go try them at home tonight!
" I have a natural snapping grid because I use three physical monitors. It’s a side-effect of the hardware, but a crucial one that I’ve absolutely come to rely on."
That’s exactly what I do. And it’s also why I don’t like widescreen monitors: I’d rather have to square ones side by side. That way I get the snapping ability and a widescreen effect.
I just tried using GridMove and it is a wonderful tool!
I even created my own custom grid that splits a screen into 4 basic parts, but the closer to the corners you go, the larger your window will be… allowing me to have corner windows at 50%, 75%, and 95% of the screen (yeah they overlap above 50% but that is what I wanted).
I found a bug where real-estate driven ‘follows mouse’ focus from TweakUI was confusing the tool and I posted a message in the forum.
An hour or two later the developer updated the code and it’s all fixed! Now THAT is service! Folks, please consider donating in support of this tool, it’s clearly worth it to me.
Now to put my money where my mouth is… make a donation myself!
There are many minimal, tiling window managers which solve this problem. I think they are all mainly for linux - I imagine it’s probably pretty hacky to do a window manager for windows.
My favorite is xmonad, which is multi-screen aware, and weighs in at about 500 lines of haskell for the quite functional core. (there’s also test code and ~2000 lines of extensions). I’ve been using it for about a month and loving it. The minimalism only really matters for you if you know haskell - it’s very easy to comprehend the entire thing, and as such very easy to extend and customize.
Mac nerds are funny, so now the reason for the faulty non inutitive way of the mac maximize button, that has been there since 14" monitors where the big thing, is because of large monitor support. Come on ! LOL. Your support for whaetver stupid thing Apple invents is amazing. Try thinking for yourself at some point.
Even on laptops the displays are getting larger. The lowest priced laptops are the 15" and 17" models, because they have been the best selling models for the last couple years (of course, that may be partially because the smaller screens are more expensive, too). Desktops regularly come with 17" widescreen LCDs now, with a moderately priced upgrade to a 19" LCD.
Very timely article for me. I office at home where i have 3 19" LCDs, perfect for code and screwing around. I just moved into a part time office at a client and got 2 22" wide LCDs for there. No comparison for working, the wides just waste space
And ditto on AutoHotKey being the power tool for Windows. A script for “does this application exist? If so, focus it, otherwise launch it” is indispensable. Also, RocketDock (small mem footprint) configured to be nothing more than a preview dock of my minimized windows that pops up when I want and keeps my main taskbar focused and uncluttered with just my restored windows is wonderful. Combined with say, Taskbar Shuffle (again small footprint) to provide the basic feature of middle click close and “we’re in business”, no robots. Oh and maybe Switcher for Expos, just as soon as he releases that version with the close window feature. I should throw this layout on my blog just so I can have someplace to link people to… that’s about all it’s for anyways. 