Dual Monitors... with a Twist!
Now, about the twist these two monitors are capable of being rotated to a portrait orientation. Not only will this amaze your friends and colleagues, it has very practical uses as well! Many computing tasks, such as page layout, word processing, and web browsing, are better suited to the portrait orientation. With dual monitors, you can have the best of both worlds traditional landscape orientation on one monitor, and portrait mode on the other. Although most portrait capable monitors can be rotated fairly easily, keeping one monitor in portrait orientation is very convenient especially for design and photo editing tasks where you may need to switch between orientations frequently.
Here's an example of how I set up my desktop for writing a Photoshop tutorial.
As you can see it gives me lots of photo-editing space in the landscape orientation, room for the palettes down the side of the portrait monitor, and still allows plenty of space for my text editor so I don't have to keep scrolling up and down to review what I've already written.
Most monitors that are capable of rotating to the portrait mode will come with the software to rotate your desktop. Most video cards by ATi and nVidia also include this feature in their drivers. If you have a rotating monitor, but don't have the software to rotate the desktop, the solution is Pivot Pro software. This is what I'm using since my Matrox video card does not include this feature. This is usually the software that comes bundled with pivoting monitors.
If you already have an LCD monitor and you like the idea of a portrait screen, but your LCD stand doesn't allow rotation, you may still be able to pivot your screen. A company called Ergotron offers the Neo-Flex LCD Stand with pivot, tilt, and rotation features. This LCD stand sells for about US$50 and should fit any LCD monitor.
I know there are some who feel that the color accuracy for design work is still not up to par on the LCD monitors, but for me there is no going back to a CRT. I don't want to give up the crispness, clarity, desk space and energy savings that an LCD monitor provides and with a good quality LCD on a DVI (digital) connection, the color issues just aren't as extreme as they were in the past. Whether you go with dual monitors or not, if you're in the market for an LCD monitor, try to find one that pivots. Most of the upper-end LCDs offer this now. And if you've already got a rotating monitor that you've never used in portrait mode, I encourage you to give it a "whirl!"
Also see:
Advantages of Portrait and Pivoting Monitors for Desktop Publishing
CRT vs. LCD Monitors: Which Monitor is the Best to Buy?
Understanding LCD Monitors
Top Picks: 19-inch LCD Monitors
MaxiVista - Dual Monitors Without Extra Hardware
Oscar's Free Multi-Monitor Taskbar
Dualing Monitors
Monitor rotation is so cool. I only realised it could be done last week. I have a CRT at home still, but at work I’ve got a rotatable LCD monitor but unfortunately not the software to rotate the screen. The ironic thing is how other people in the office have older LCD monitors that can’t physically rotate, but they’ve got the drivers to do itas simple as right clicking
Michael: Nvidia, ATI, and Matrox all allow for rotation within the drivers now. There is also iRotate, free rotation software: http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/irotate.shtm
I have been doing exactly this with Pivot Pro for years. The vertical screen is great for text documents as you can see the whole page. Some software allows the gui on one monitor and the image on the other. Great stuff. Not enough monitors have pivoting bases though.
I have an HP pc connected to 2 HP flat screens. One of the monitors can physically rotate. How do I configure PivotPro (loaded already) to have 1 monitor’s display to rotate, as you have shown.
Victor: You may not need Pivot Pro. Matrox, nVidea, and ATI all have the rotation capabilities built into the display software these days. I would look into that first.
I can’t tell you how to configure Pivot Pro because I haven’t used it in years and no longer have it installed. I now have an ATI graphics card and the rotation is a function of their Catalyst software.
If you can’t find the answer in Pivot Pro’s documentation, you may want to post your question in the discussion forum where maybe someone else who uses Pivot Pro will see it and be able to help you. http://forums.about.com/ab-graphicssoft/
What kind of video card do you need to run two monitors? What model 20″ dell’s do you use?
Dax: My Dell monitors are old–2001FP. I don’t think they are sold anymore. You don’t need any special video card to run 2 monitors. You can either have 2 single-port video cards installed in your computer, or one video card with 2 ports.
Portrait mode is pretty awesome, especially for Day Trading! I have a SUPER PC triple LCD stand with a 24″ LCD in the middle and two smaller LCDs on the side in portrait mode, like your picture above. Using multiple monitors is such an amazing tool! Many people don’t understand, until the first time they use a multi-monitor system. It’s an instant realization that multiple screens are fun and enhance your productivity!
get a mac, rotation of any second monitor is supported by the leopard operating system, regardless of make or model. if you are a writer, this feature is a must have.
Does someone know how you get your MS-trackball in sync? Changing the monitoor is simple enough. Changing the trackball is a real problem.
What’s the issue with the trackball? I use a trackball (Kensington, not MS) but never had a problem.
Hi Sue,
After switching the trackball behave as usual, that is moving to the left will move the cursor up etc. The change in the monitor direction is not followed by the trackball.
Tx
Sue,
have you used the
Trackball Kensington Orbit Optical
Tx again for your help.
Hans,
I have not heard of an issue like that before. Are you sure you set your software for rotation in the correct direction? Have you updated your trackball driver?
The Kensington trackball I use is the Kensington Expert Mouse. I use the X-Mouse Button Control driver with it since the Kensington driver does not work in Vista 64-bit.
The problem was between my ears and eyes, because I could not rotate my monitor until the neo-flex monitor stands arrived. After that the whole thing worked fine. It’s ideal for reading e-books. That was why I wanted the portrait setup. I am a happy reader now!
Sue, thanks for your help.
in regards to your color management comments. Calibrate your monitors and you will have identical output. (dont calibrate just one and then use the same .icc profile). You might also find you’ve been using incorrect color all along. but if you REALLY want both monitors to match, color correct them..
thanks though nice article, was wondering if monitors could still be rotated!