People with big monitors....

[tiggerai]

....

I was discussing today how people use their big monitors for browsing the web...

If you've got a large monitor, how do you use it?

Do you have multiple windows open side by side? Is everything full screen?

If you were on a website, is there a point at which it's TOO wide for sensible use?

Pictures would be welcomed to demonstrate!


I'd be very interested in your informal answers as its something I've wondered about too - as I'm a multiple monitor person, not a great big behemoth monitor person!

[shaithis]

I use dual 30" Dells.....so each screen is 2560x1600.

I have never thought "it's too wide" (fnarf!)....I tend to have things like freinds lists (steam, Origin), TeamSpeak, CPU-Z, GPU-Z (i.e. small refreshing apps) on the second screen and use the primary for my active work.

The second screen also comes into it's own for me when researching. As I find a page or info that I want to keep at hand, I drag it's window to the second screen and then I can go bac to my "reference screen" when I need that info again.

I find UltraMon helps me manage the dual desktops as well.

Each screen though is hard to split up....I find multiple screens > larger screens for productivity.

[pauldarkside]

SSD in RMA so don't have usual software.

Here's an example whilst I sort something out (I'll be back with a more useful description shortly).



Right, actually that's probably sufficient. Above is 3x 23" 1920x1080 screens. Primary focus is always on the centre screen, with the left and right screens being used for peripheral stuff. When coding, I'll have the source front and centre, output on the right and source/reference material (Photoshop/brief/etc.) on the left. For research, it's any number of browsers, Excel, etc thrown around across all three.

Browsers on anything bigger than ~1600 pixels wide, I don't see the point in putting to full screen.

[TheAnimus]

I also run two 30" dells.

It depends is the awnser. Often I have two windows side by side, sometimes I don't.

[Bugbait]

I use a single 30" Dell with the main web browsing window (Chrome) about 1600x1200 in the centre. Then there are numerous File Explorer windows open in the background around the edge with IE9 running a few other things with a bunch of gadgets running down the right side. I tend to layer a lot of windows. When working from home I often run the Remote Desktop at 1600x1200 centred near the top so I can easily switch to other windows. Easier and less restrictive to browse outside of the remote session (of course). Switch to full screen remote when there's numerous things to do though. Only time I use exclusively use full screen is for gaming and photos.

[aidanjt]

With 1920px width, I find side-by-side browsing annoyingly narrow, and fullscreen is far too much wasted pixel space for current websites, so I leave the browser window stretched to about 1400pxish across, and stack a pair of windows beside it, usually a terminal/putty instance and probably a file browser or whatever. I think 22"/1680x1050 would be perfect for fullscreen browsing, but side-by-side would really need a 30"/2560x1600 to not feel like eyerape.

[Zak33]

at work I have a 1680x1050 and a laptop with 1440x900

Both are landscape and I position the Windows settings to place the smaller screen further down so when I move the mouse across it's intuitive that I can't move from the top of the large monitor to the top of the smaller one unless I moe the mouse part way down.

HOWEVER.. as soon as I need to compare multiple website with items to compare and contrast products, equiment descriptions etc... I swivel the larger screen to PORTRAIT and use it sideway on.. keeping the lappy landscape. Mentally I can keep the two split, lappy with excel, word, etc and the web briowsers on the portrait one with 4 windows open.

Dunno why.. but for me it's ideal

[Behemoth]

Gone back to having just the one display, whilst I liked having my 20 inch as a secondary display more often than not it was just used to display random information. I find one 23 inch is more than big enough, gets everything on it I need, that and all the desk space I had was being eaten up.

Generally speaking though have my browser window maximised and other stuff open the background running on screen side by side such as msn chat windows.

[Lucio]

Whilst I only have a 20" 1650x1080 but my ideal website is 800 pixels wide because I prefer to get two side by side (or tv show and website)

[Funkstar]

2x 24" @ 1920x1200 (or some stinky little netbook display that i'm using just now)

I usually have email open to the left full screen, but with the Windows task bar on the left instead of the bottom. The right hand screen has Opera open but not full screen, usually have MSN on to the far right. I find browsing slightly odd when it's full screen, but the 24" isn't big enough for two whole pages most of the time. I think a 27" would be the perfect size for me and I would get two full web pages on a single screen.

This would be a tempting configuration if I had the cash, as I'm sure Lightroom would love the extra resolution. And just in case you are interested, Lightroom opens on the right, but I shove the grid layout to the left and leave Loup/Develop to the right.

[Betty_Swallocks]

I haven't got particularly big monitors. Just a pair of elderly 20.1" Dells but I wouldn't be without 2 screens. It makes just about everything you do so much easier. You can be writing a document on one screen while researching on the other without having to alt-tab

[kalniel]

and I thought the question was going to be: 'are you compensating for something?'

(in the office we have a mix of multi-screen and single large screen. The programmers tend to prefer the multi-screens while the designers tend to prefer single. I'm a bit of both and single screen suits me as I can effectively emulate both set ups, according to need. I never have a browser window larger than half the screen though, unless I'm testing for something weird.)

[dave87]

I run a 23" Dell (left) and a 17" LG (right) (my old monitor - kept it running after I upgraded). Works quite well, though I would like to replace the 17" with another 23" Dell to match.

Emails go on the right monitor, as does Music/second windows etc. Main monitor I usually use as a single item - so full page browser/word/excel/etc. As someone else has already said, 1920px is just a little too narrow for side by side viewing with modern websites.

[Hoonigan]

As someone else has already said, 1920px is just a little too narrow for side by side viewing with modern websites.

That's where my 2048x1152 Samsung comes in, perfectly sized for 2 browsers side by side

[peterb]

...have big desks?

[jim]

I've got a 2048x1152 panel, and for a brief while ran it alongside a 1920x1080 screen.

With aero snap, I'm not sure that multiple screens are such a great bonus. They're a pain to setup, make my speakers asymmetrical, and cause compatibility problems with certain software/games.

I would much rather have a 2560x1600 screen than a pair of 1920x1080 screens, but I suspect I would eventually just want a pair of 2560x1600s. It's wonderful being able to read off one screen and work on the other, or monitor a download while getting on with you work. Going back to just one screen at the moment, I've had to re-learn the alt-tab manoeuvres