Laptops and second screens

Depends on your needs. I sometimes use a second (larger) external monitor with my laptop for two reasons, neither related to writing. I do a lot of graphic work, and the bigger external screen is much better for that stuff. Second, I also need to do presentations at professional meetings from time to time, and again, the external screen is much better for that. For writing? Can't see any need for one.

caw

Possibly you could use one for your writing, and the other for research, at the stage where you're checking facts and references? (Stole this idea from work, where one screen shows the claim you're working on, while the other is used for checking the plan details, previous claims, etc.)

frimble3 said:

Possibly you could use one for your writing, and the other for research, at the stage where you're checking facts and references? (Stole this idea from work, where one screen shows the claim you're working on, while the other is used for checking the plan details, previous claims, etc.)

Click to expand...

Yes!

I agree with this. It'd be awesome to have your research/planning/etc on one screen while the other one acts as your draft.

Methinks I need to invest.

For one example of a use, I can say when a beta sends feedback in one email, or even chapter by chapter, I find it helpful to have them both open together so I can scan through and see and/or address what they noted. Actually even the messages on the side, as I generally go back to the original and make corrections.

My writing screen isn't very big, so I have to click back and forth between them.




I'm surprised this made it, as AW froze. The other thing it may help is when you're editing and making big changes like shuffling scenes from one to the other. I can make it work with pasting into new docs and minimizing, but I imagine 2 screens would help.

If you can get one cheap enough, it can be fun to have your desk all tricked out!

Let me mull this over as I sit here on my laptop and determine what I have on my laptop monitor and what I have on my attached second monitor...

Main Monitor
ChromeCamtasia

Second (laptop monitor)
PuTtY (SSH Client)
Chat Client
Notepad
I honestly cannot imagine a working scenario without a second monitor. When I teach, my Powerpoint Notes screen in on my laptop monitor, and the Full Screen view is on the second monitor (projector) which the students can see. Given that the main reason behind having a laptop is the portability, my only nit is that the second monitor (which I often use as the main since it's larger) is decidedly not portable. But, work did not want to buy me a portable USB monitor...

That'd be my recommendation though if I were to buy my own - get a USB monitor so you can take it with you...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160174

I'm using two of my four screens right now while building a glossary for a fantasy book. Left screen has the mms. Center has the glossary file. As I scroll through the story chapter by chapter, I'll type or cut&paste given names, place names, things, & concepts into the glossary. Along with quick notes I need to remember. When I get to the end of the book, I'll reconcile this glossary with one in the same setting but a different time period, trimming for potential spoilers. Then I'll sort entries alphabetically. A short version will go to my publisher for the back of the ebook, while the long version gets pretty art and goes onto my blog.

Multiple screens are great for this kind of fiddly work.

I use two screens as well....and I love it! My husband set it up for his graphic work years ago, but I started using it for my bookkeeping and my writing. It comes in handy for a lot of things in regards to keeping books, but for writing specifically, I keep my manuscript open on one screen, and on the other I have my notes and a working outline (I outline *after* I write each chapter, it comes in handy for editing later).

My desktop does not go online for various reasons, but sometimes I also open my laptop to do research as well. If the desktop went online, I'd also just use the second screen for research too.

I went a slightly different direction. I have a Dell 43" monitor. You really don't need 2 screens when you have that much real estate.

But whether you go large monitor or multiple monitors, being able to see two things at the same time without having to alt-tab back and forth will end up saving you a lot of time and aggravation.

D.L. Shepherd said:

...My husband set it up for his graphic work years ago...

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Oh yeah, I forgot about the personal computer:

Adobe
Photoshop: editing window on one screen, editing tools on second screen
InDesign: epub editing window on one screen, raw text and graphics on second screen
Premiere: video editing window on one screen, resource folder and output folder on second screen

TechSmith
Camtasia: Video editor on one screen, resource and output folder on second screen

Office
Word on one screen, Powerpoint on second
Two instances of Excel, one on each screen - great for compiling multiple linear databases
Outlook: Calendar on one screen, email on second screen

I've never used two screens personally, but this past school year a lot of kids in my res hall at college used two screens. They did it for various purposes, but a main one was basically so they could watch a video on one screen while doing homework or playing video games on another.

I like the idea mentioned above of having one screen dedicated to writing and the other filled with your research and anything you need.

Two screens are good if for no other reason than to drag windows out of your way. They're also good for copy/paste between windows.

I have two monitors plus the laptop (although the daughter-unit absconded with one of them.) I do an internet radio show for an on-line game, so I have the broadcasting software dashboard up on the laptop monitor and am running the game, the back end to the music server, and a discord chat feed on the other monitor.

But, like others have said, it's incredibly useful when comparing documents, cutting and pasting information, etc.

Plus, since I have an ultra-wide monitor, I can have all of my feeds up in Tweetdeck and see 9 of the 12 without having to scroll. 'Tis verra nice.

I LOVE having two screens. When I'm drafting, I have Scrivener open on the 2nd screen so I can see my research at a glance, and Word on the main screen. (No, I don't write in Scrivener.)

When I'm editing it's great to have files with beta comments open on the 2nd screen.

One of the IRL writing groups I'm in has a chat platform where we do timed sprints, so it's also really handy to have the chat window open on the 2nd screen while I'm writing on the main one.

And it also looks super professional and fancy. LOL

Two screens only?

I use three, and would be going for more (aim is six, which I'm not too ashamed to admit is out pure envy for a guy I once met whose office set-up I would clone in a heartbeat) if I could afford it and my video card could handle it.

It's certainly changed the way I write, I think for the better, although there are times, particularly when I'm doing new material, that I like to turn the outer two monitors off and just focus on the main document, distraction-free. The rest of the time, I have outlines and note docs up--I end up jotting all kinds of stuff down as I'm going. Sometimes I have another chapter open if I'm moving material or I need to reference something. Often I have a scratch version of a map open so I don't create geographical plot holes. Music player lives somewhere as well, usually in toolbar form but not always. Mostly the primary document stays open on the main monitor.

The other thing I've really noticed it helps with is my eyes. I can keep a document zoomed in somewhere, there's less flashing as windows open and minimize, and the main monitor is fairly optimized for longer reading periods. I tend to use smallish salvage monitors as the outer two as desk space becomes an issue. If I ever go for six I'm going to have to work out some wall-mounting.

I think it's a good idea generally, if you have the resources and temperament to do it. There's the danger of multi-tasking lurking--I've definitely lost time to leaving Twitter open or something--but I think that's more than made up for by not having to scroll through mountains of active apps trying to find the right version of the right chapter only to have to switch to outline to check something a moment later.

I print less, too, because there's less need for documents in front of me--cheaper.

Jason said:

That'd be my recommendation though if I were to buy my own - get a USB monitor so you can take it with you...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160174

Click to expand...

I use two monitors at work which is awesome, so I picked up one of the AOC USB monitors and I love it, too!

It's very handy to display more information all at once instead of having to flick back and forth between different windows and tabs.

Technically I have 3 17" screens and one Cintique that gets used as a sketchpad or overflow. I love writing or art with that much real estate. Saves time.

For work I have 2 monitors, a 22" and a 20". Typically one holds a document I'm working on, the other has reference or research material, or a source for copy-pasting, or else (default state) Outlook. Since the 2 screens aren't identical, when I'm working with spreadsheets I tend to put the one I'm most focused on at the moment onto the larger screen where I can see more rows & columns at once. For some tasks I swap stuff between screens a lot, for others things always stay in a single arrangement. It's a huge improvement to my productivity!

My personal computer where I do most of my writing & related research is a 27" iMac. Only 1 screen, but it's big enough I can have several things open and visible at the same time when I need to, so functionally it's almost equivalent to 2 smaller monitors. Not quite -- 2 would still be better than 1. Someday in the future, perhaps.

tjwriter said:

I use two monitors at work which is awesome, so I picked up one of the AOC USB monitors and I love it, too!

It's very handy to display more information all at once instead of having to flick back and forth between different windows and tabs.

Click to expand...

I don't think I need one, but I didn't know these existed. Very cool!

cmhbob said:

Anyone use a rotating monitor for their second/third/whatever screen, turned to profile view?

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I don't, myself, but I know several developers who do that so they can see more lines of code onscreen at the same time. It works for them.

My boss uses a rotating monitor, and he likes it for three reasons:

1. When he used to do all the shipping the portrait mode allowed him to see all 3 kits in transit without having to scroll
2. When he looks at our upcoming teaching schedules, he can see up to four months down in the calendar without having to scroll
3. The script he built for logging into our various VM's has about 95 different instances, and he can see them all without having to scroll

I have to remind him that when he does a screen sharing with me it doesn't work though because I can't rotate mine (well, I could, but it would screw with how my apps are oriented.

I thing portrait mode is mostly to scroll less...but I like more width so I can make things bigger (I'm okay with scroll)

This is getting REAL crazy!

Holy moses! :O