Using two monitors

how many

[SanDiegoPaul]

I am using a 19" Samsung flat panel, and need more resolution. I thought that 1280x1024 would be enough especially since I started doing websites years ago at 800x600 ...

Anyway I am always running out of room. I am wondering if others out there are using Dreamweaver with two monitors ... one for the dev. panels, and one for the main window. This would also help with Photoshop and Fireworks for that matter.

How much of a pain in the arse is it to constantly monitor both screens for info?

[LifeinAsia]

It depends on what you're doing, but far and away I prefer using 2 monitors to 1.

I much prefer being able to look on the right screen while I'm trying to edit the page on the left instead of toggling back and forth on 1 monitor.

Alternatively, if I'm waiting on something on one screen (long download, lots of files being copied, etc.), I can work on one screen and just glance at teh other to check on progress instead of toggling back and forth.

There have actually been several times recently where I've considered going to 3 screens.

[jezra]

I've been using a dual monitor setup since the late 90's. To me, it is just the way computers work. I feel at a bit of a loss when I'm on a single monitor computer. I do agree with LifeinAsia, there are many times I would prefer to have 3 monitors.

[Philosopher]

I switched to two monitors about 4 months ago. WOW I can't believe I didn't do it 5-6 years ago. It makes an incredible difference.

Definitely considering moving to 3 in the near future.

[sja65]

I've been using a 3 head setup for several years, and really like it. I'm using a dual head AGP card and a single PCI card. The refreshes on the PCI card are significantly slower than on the AGP, so I tend to avoid things that have a lot of movement on that monitor. Since I am normally in text windows it works just fine for me, but for many people it would be worth investing in a single card that can support more than 2 monitors.

[jtara]

Well, I have one more monitor than Bill Gates. I have 4. Bill Gates only has 3. Nayh nayh!

4 Samsung 213T's (22" 1600x1200 LCD) on Ergotron arms. (Each arm holds 2 monitors. They make an arm that will hold 3 - but not 4 - 22" monitors. I think you can do 4 if they are smaller).

I recently took the arms off of the desktop bases and mounted them on the wall. I called Ergotron to see what I needed to get to mount on the wall. They insisted that I needed to replace everything.

So, I went to Radio Shack, and bought two wall-mounts for TV antennas. Total cost, $16.

4 is probably overkill for most people. I think 3 is the sweet spot. The problem with 4 is that there's no one screen that is your focus. It's a bit strange to sit there looking at the crack between two screens. ;) (You can also go quad, but that can hurt your neck pretty quickly...)

I did this a few years ago when I was doing software development for automated stock trading. Although I wasn't trading myself, I still had to test the application and sometimes monitor stock quotes (with a seperate app) while testing. Add your development environment - maybe two copies for cut-and-paste between projects, a web browser window, and an instances of Acrobat for reading manuals, and I did manage to fill-up 4 screens.

I'm currently reconfiguring this. I'm going to cut back to 2 screens for my Windows system and switch 2 of them to a new Linux system for web development. I'm also thinking it will be a painless way to try to transition as much of my computer use as possible from Windows to Linux.