6 Ways to Improve Your Dual Monitor Setup
Dual monitor setups can ease your life a great deal. Whether you’re a gamer, programmer, marketer, or even a writer. Two screens at once will boost your productivity phenomenally.
Say you’re a gamer. You could be gaming on one and chatting with your teammates on Discord on the other. Similarly, you could be typing on one and browsing on the other.
But you can only do as much if you set it all up the right way! Here, that’s what we will talk about. Below you will find the top six ways of enhancing your dual monitor setup and make the most of your investment.
Synchronize Displays
When setting up a dual monitor system from scratch, we recommend purchasing the same monitors. And by the same, we refer to their brand, model, and resolution. Installing two same monitors as one in your space will be far easier than adjusting two different monitors together.
However, if you got the idea to set up a dual monitor setup a little too late. And you’re purchasing a newer monitor only now, then do not worry. It can still serve as a dual monitor.
First, go to the display settings and rearrange the displays to adjust in terms of alignment and orientation. Once both your screens are aligned, go to the Scale and Layout section to bring about a uniform resolution. Usually, you would have to set the lower resolution screen to its maximum resolution and scale down the one with higher resolution. Another thing that we recommend looking into is the brightness and colors of the screen.
Incorporate a Monitor Arm
Depending on the models you have, we recommend using a monitor arm. Monitor arms can assist with the heavyweight of your monitor screen. These can help adjust the screen distance, depth, height, and even angle to help you get a comfortable view.
Plus, monitors can prove to be particularly helpful if you’re working in portrait form. Since the arms are bendable, these permit an easy rotation for vertical monitors. You can shift your screen to a complete 90 degrees to acquire a long-form view. And such a view can be particularly handy for programmers and coders.
Choose an Appropriate Position
Dual monitors setup demand frequent movement of your neck. And that could prove to be damaging in the long run. Hence, to improve your dual monitor setup, it’s important to choose an appropriate position.
For detailed advice on positioning the dual monitors:
- Step one: Position the two monitors such that the edge of one touches the other horizontally. These screens should be in front of your nose.
- Step two: Now, position the two monitors at a distance of about 18-28 inches, such that they are an arm’s length away.
- Step three: Place your office chair an arm’s length away and check if your neck is straight when looking at the screens. We recommend using a swivel chair, so you don’t have to invest much effort when switching your focus.
Also, practice the 20-20-20 rule when working on your dual monitor setup for hours.
Decorate with a Wallpaper
You cannot be improving your dual monitor setup without feeling all aesthetic about it! So, do yourself a favor and invest in a good wallpaper.
We recommend opting for a solid color wallpaper as dual monitors already offer a lot of colors and diversity. With a solid color in the background, you will have greater clarity and focus.
The same applies to your digital space! You cannot work with two different wallpapers. It will make it impossible for your brain two perceive the two screens as one. So, choose a super-wide wallpaper to make your digital view easy on the eyes.
Get Hang of the Shortcuts
An additional skill that can help you level up your dual monitor setup experience is the command over shortcuts. Here are a few keyboard shortcuts that can help you control your screen in a matter of seconds:
- Win + Home: It minimizes all windows except your current one.
- Win + Up or Win + Down: It minimizes or maximizes the current window.
- Shift + Win + Right or Shift + Win + Left: It helps shift the current window from one monitor to another.
Lock the Cursor
When working with multiple monitors, the cursor may act funny. You might want to hold it in one place, but it may keep drifting away to the other screen as soon as you let it loose. And this is particularly a problem for gamers.
To address this, you can use different apps and software like the Cursor Lock. Using it, you can lock your cursor’s movement to one screen.
Final Thoughts
All in all, setting up a dual monitor plan may seem easy on the surface. Just align the two monitors together, and there you go!
But in reality, the perfect alignment of the two monitors for maximized productivity and convenience has complete science behind it. We hope we were able to deliver the most of it to you, the rest is yours to explore!
Author Bio:
Shawn Mack is an experienced content writer who offers ghostwriting, copy-writing, and blogging services. His educational background in the business and technical field has given him a broad base from which to approach many topics. He is also fond of writing interesting articles on technology and digital marketing-related topics.