September 3, 2023: How Many Monitors?

[RoboAdmin]

September 3, 2023: How Many Monitors?

Read this article on the Illuminator.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I have six monitors with a "seventh" for my VR headset and an "eighth" for my projector. Having the discrete sections is great for working because I can have the left devoted to PDFs, the right to browser, etc.

It's worked well for me so far. Being able to just open and reference multiple PDFs at once is a Godsend.

[Lisandro]

I tried working with two but kept ignoring the second one and being distracted.

I know it is helpful when you are working on two documents, but it happens rarely. So, I prefer to (try to) keep my focus on only one thing. Multitasking is just an illusion.

[johndallman]

Just one monitor, by strong preference. My sight is poor, and I have to get close enough to a monitor that I can't see the whole screen at once. So extras are pointless. Not many people have such problems, but I had to push back when my workplace wanted to give everyone two monitors.

[CordsOfCrows]

I just use one 48in 4k TV as my main display. It's big and high resolution enough that I can just use it as a more traditional "desktop" and have many windows scattered about however makes sense for what I'm doing in the moment. There are times where I think it could be nice to have a smaller second one off to the side for things that are truly unimportant to look at, but thus far hiding those windows in the corners has been enough. And that's good, as there isn't really space on my desk for anything more!

Much bigger than this I think even 4k wouldn't be enough resolution when you're sitting up close. A hair smaller than 48in may even be a better sweet spot. I've seen some 42in screens that are sold as proper desktop monitors that may be the perfect mix, and perhaps give you just enough space for that second media or chatroom screen to keep those out of your hair while working.

[whswhs]

I've never used more than one monitor, currently a 27-inch Asus that takes up as much space as my desktop will accommodate (leaving room for a speaker to either side). Having enough screen to read two documents side by side is really useful for copy editing and sometimes for writing. I've looked at Apple monitors, which are really pretty, but I just can't justify the exorbitant cost.

From time to time, especially if I'm running a game by Zoom, I look things up on my iPad, which is a lot like having a second monitor. But often enough I don't think of it, but just open a new window on the monitor screen. That has the fringe benefit that I can screen share . . .

[Michael Cule]

Two: one set up in 'landscape' orientation and one in 'portrait'.

I didn't need more than one until I started running and taking part in on line TTRPG sessions regularly. Which happened during the pandemic as you probably suspected.

During games, I have the landscape screen to show me the smiling faces of the players and the portrait set up to either display Roll20 or to display PDFs of rules and scenarios.

And yes, I have the iPad Pro to act as another means to look things up.

[DeadParrot]

By OP's standard, I have 3. One 55" TV across the room that serves as the background noise device. Two old 16:10 Dell Ultrasharp 24" connected to the desktop. Normally only have one on but use both when doing things that need several open windows. The Ultrasharp stands will let the monitor rotate 90 degrees for those rare times I need a tall narrow monitor.

[MongolHorde]

In the office I've run 3 monitors for the last 10-ish years. Typically the smallest would be set up to "monitor" (heh) my systems that I'm responsible for, the other two would have a web browser and email open.

Since we've moved to Teams and need to keep it open all the time, email's been relegated to the small monitor, Teams and the web share a monitor, and my systems get the third.

When I'm working from home, I only recently went from running two separate systems, to using the BYOD that rolled out earlier this year, so now my personal PC has three. One for the work PC, one for keeping an eye on things, and one for personal surfing / email.

Not sure more would be a help, but also, well, I'm out of desk space with three and while up is an option, I've got art on the wall...

[RobKamm]

I'd long preferred two monitors (though often with one or both screens divided to multiple windows). During the pandemic I found myself working more and more on my laptop without a second screen. While I do bounce from one tab to another a lot I don't feel that is significantly different from moving focus from one window to the next. At work I still use two screen and sometimes pull out the iPad.

We don't do virtual table top gaming in my group. But I routinely have my iPad at the physical table.