I own two 20 inch monitor with ultramon installed. Great app. I’ve been using it for quite awhile now. I love the feature that allows you to drag a maximize window to a different monitor. It’s fantastic.
However, the best solution for me would be an super wide (not tall) and bendable monitor with software-based grid snapping functionality. That would be my dream.
[Quote]I’ve been a lurker for a long time on your site (well, your feed anyway) and I really appreciate you sharing knowledge and tips, but it’s time to let this one go dude. I just fail to see the issue.[/quote] I think this statement says it all…
[Quote]This is a made up problem if I’ve ever seen one. I have multiple setups with several different OS’s and don’t have this problem with any of them. I mean, really, how much time does it take you to drag the windows to the size you want? Does saving a half second over the course of a day add that much to your productivity?[/quote]So its a made up problem because you don’t have the problem I see. Most of my windows are appropriately sized already so when I switched to a 20inch display my most used applications scaled nicely without me having to do much of anything doesn’t really mean someone else will have the same fortune.
The reason the Mac way of maximizing is confusing has quite a bit to do with the use of the word maximize, the Mac way of doing things is far closer to scaling than maximization which implies taking up all the screen space available not “fitting to width” (scaling.) If I want a window maximized I want the window maximized not scaled, if I want a window scaled I want it scaled and not maximized.
Johnny I don’t know how your work area was setup but if you get a chance to try a multi-monitor setup again try putting at least one of the monitors at a slight angle and use your eyes to look at the screen instead of turning your head.
I personally can’t waot to get another display and combine it with virtual desktops. Six per screen sounds good to me.
I am just staring out in the design business, so funds are limited. I cannot yet afford to buy anything more than what I have, which is pitifully small and slow. On app that helps is Multiplicity from Stardock. I cannot stress how valuable it is for me to be able to move seamlessly not between monitors, but between computers. My setup allows me to mesh two separate computers/and monitors together, to drag files, copy and paste, and control computer 2 with the mouse and keyboard of computer 1. It’s a good alternative if you have two computers and you wish to control both, and move between both with one controller.
When I get the money, I will look into getting a faster setup with more monitors - looks very cool!
I’m probably the exception here…
I hate multiple monitors, and I hate widescreen monitors. I hate them from the bottom of my heart.
I’ve tried working with two or even three monitors (both CRT and LCD) and found it extremely troublesome. Sure, if you want to kick your Winamp or disk defragmenter or a rarely used tool palette to another screen, it’s a perfect solution. But that’s just about the only use I find for multiple monitors - to hold stuff you might glance at rarely. I tried holding some documentation on one of the side monitors and when I found myself needing to actually read it, tilting my head quickly wore me down. So what did I do? I kicked the documentation to the primary display. So much for that.
Virtual desktops are where it’s at for me. Just a keypress, and I have an instant context switch to an entirely different working area with a different set of windows.
I prefer 1280x960 on a 19" CRT and 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD. I could probably use something like a widescreen 1600x1050, if I were to place the left part of the LCD in front of me, and keep the right part farther away, holding… Well, I don’t know what. Winamp?
What I do like is the idea of having 2560x2048 on an 19" LCD and an operating system which would respect the increased DPI and keep everything at the same physical size as the current 1280x1024. I don’t think that will happen for another five years. But even then, I’d use zoom in my browser to enlarge the webpage content, as I’m doing right now with this website being zoomed to 140%.
The thing that drives me crazy about the Mac with large monitors is the single-menu design. The more screen realestate you have, the more likely you are to have your pointer far away from the menu bar. Sometimes I have to make multiple mouse movements to get to the menu bar to make a selection. This is extremely irritating to me, so much so that I often will unplug one monitor, or just not use it.
I did not know about WinSplit, cool tool!
Additionally I use the following tools
a href="www.basta.com/ProdZMover.htm"ZMovera allows you to resize windows when they opens, especially useful for some Java apps that doesnt remember where they where last.
a href="www.ntwind.com/software/taskswitchxp.html"
TaskSwitchXP/a A better ALT-TAB switcher that shows up on the active monitor.
WinSplit is a great!
I’m desperatly looking for a solution to run a second monitor and TV-out at the same time on a laptop (in fact we’d need two independent S-VIDEO outs). Now, if anyone knows how to do that… 
no mention of allsnap? It basically makes windows behave like photoshop or winamp windows… but not only to other windows, but potentially a gridlike setup as well. it can be set so that it only works while holding alt (or always works except when holding alt). I put it on my families computer, and they think that this new “windows thing” is so useful.
Todays development tools are complex and requires a lot of space. Not sure if your article applies also to developers.
I frankly don’t get Windows users’ obsession with maximizing windows and avoiding overlapping windows.
Jeff,
I was just on the winsplit website and they now support multi-monitor, I haven’t tried it though.
best,
JF
I think GridMove is a rad program (and I thank you for calling my attention to it).
And nowadays, I like having my applications maximized. However, I miss my beautiful wallpaper! So I made a .grid template file for GridMove, that leaves 30 pixels of wallpaper visible on all sides of your otherwise-maximized windows.
Download the file here:
http://www.pinkblack.org/itblog/?p=41
Worked on the same issue for a while. Main challenge – multi-monitor support in remote session. Just finished Virtual Display Manager: http://www.ishadow.com/?tabid=115 Should help with large screens too. Comments are welcome.
Alex
I currently use one 16801050 LCD, and a 19201080 TV in a completely different location, but virtually to the left. Has anyone here thought of stacking monitors vertically (Using a frame to hold them, of course) yet? Maybe a 4 monitor desktop, 3 on the bottom, and one above the top, might work. Or 6 monitors. Or 9, in a truly frightening array. Or even a polyhedron surrounding a single rotating chair, mouse, and keyboard. Or maybe we’ll have non-flat screens, with preconfigured spheres and hemispheres available. I’m getting scared now. But my dream monitor set would be a spherical configuration, plus a reasonably sized touchscreen main monitor that is always visible (Attached to the chair, along with the keyboard and mouse), where alerts and the taskbar/panel show.
Basic geometry question for anyone who might know, please.
I have used a 19" 4:3 LCD at the native 1280x1024 the past few years for my business apps. I’m not a programmer or designer, I’m just building a business but use a lot of apps from Office to video editing and web design. I’m considering going to a widescreen LCD (with WinSplit or GridMove and maybe a virtual desktop to manage the real estate). I use XP Pro and am not planning to customize its text sizing. I’ll always stay at native resolution with my LCD.
I’m trying to decide between going to a 19" at 1440 x 900, or a 24" at 1920 x 1200.
What I’m trying to find out is two things.
A. Which is going to give me the largest characters and how does that character size compare with what I have now?
B. If I go for the 24" will it end up giving me side-by-side Word docs that have text as big as what I get now?
Thanks.
I use WinSplit and Sizer to split my 24" 1920x1200 into either 2 or 3 areas. Works ok for me.
I miss a source code text editor that could “widen” its editable area into 2 or 3 columns, newspaper columns style. Anyone ?
Thanks.
Here are the stats on comparing various LCD monitor sizes and their native resolutions in terms of how it affects the size of characters (etc).
The operative spec to compare is “pixel pitch,” which is a direct measurement to enable you to compare character/etc sizes (assuming identical data being sent to the monitor, of course). The larger the pixel pitch the larger the character size. (Naturally, the higher the resolution the more the real estate, which is a separate matter.)
Here are the ones I looked at, listed both by monitor size and by pixel pitch. I compared the older 19" 4:3 to the common wide-screens.
Listed by monitor size and resolution (and with the % size compared to 19" 4:3, which is the largest of those I compared):
19" 4:3 = 1280 x 1024 = .294 pixel pitch (100%)
19" wide = 1440 x 900 = .285 pixel pitch (96.9%)
20" wide = 1680 x 1050 = .258 pixel pitch (87.7%)
22" wide = 1680 x 1050 = .282 pixel pitch (95.9%)
24" wide = 1920 x 1200 = .270 pixel pitch (91.8%)
That same list in order of pixel pitch is:
20" wide = 1680 x 1050 = .258 pixel pitch (87.7%)
24" wide = 1920 x 1200 = .270 pixel pitch (91.8%)
22" wide = 1680 x 1050 = .282 pixel pitch (95.9%)
19" wide = 1440 x 900 = .285 pixel pitch (96.9%)
19" 4:3 = 1280 x 1024 = .294 pixel pitch (100%)
Note that the 24" wide is exactly half-way between the 20" wide and the 22" wide (and that the 20" wide and 22" wide have the same resolutions as each other – same real estate).
wow, thanks God I found this thread! I too think that 30’’ monitors cross the line between “great” and “so great that bothers me”… Initially I was astonished with so much space, but after a while you start to get tired of adjusting manually the windows, not being able to maximize, etc.
of all the links and solutions mentioned here I decided temporarily to stick with iShadow’s Virtual Display Manager. Still undecided if I’m going to continue using and pay the (expensive) 50 bucks they ask, but so far the experience was good. Also liked GridMove, and it’s a cheaper alternative to iVDM (even though I miss the functionality to ‘maximize’ a window to a virtual space). WinSplit is a no-go to me; felt it interesting, but not very useful at all.
thanks all for the suggestions and links!
