Dual Monitor(s) ??s

[Combs, Richard]

Richard Doll wrote: 
 
> Try'd 24" Wide Screen on this sys; but, aspect of wide-screen 
> only stretches display to fill monitor area. Such that 
> 8.5x11-in page at 100% displays at
> 10.25x11 . . . like its quite chubby. Type and graphics also 
> display pixelized/distorted. Can change aspect to normal, but 
> then, margins are completely dead and type still pixcelized.
> So, returning 2407 monitor for two regular (aspect) screens.

You were using the wrong display resolution. Did you just hook up the
new monitor and leave your existing display settings? Your old graphics
card may not be capable of supporting this monitor's high display
resolution, but it should support a wide aspect ratio setting (like
1440x900) that avoids the horizontal stretching. I don't know what
"margins are completely dead" means; if you use a wide aspect ratio
setting, the image should fill the screen without stretching. 

That said, your graphics card really needs to support the monitor's
native resolution -- the Dell 2407's native resolution is 1920x1200.
With an LCD, any setting other than the native resolution must be
scaled, and the quality suffers significantly. I don't know what
graphics card your new Dell PC uses, but I'd assume it can support
Dell's 2407 monitor, which has been out for a while. 

> Question(s) is . . . How to direct certain apps to display on 
> which screen and (FMkr) how to have 
> (para/table/structure/etc). designer "drop-downs" to appear 
> on screen2 next to the screen1 that would display the 
> main/page window.
> And . . . should I care how the mouse knows that the right 
> boundary of screen #1 is really the left edge of screen #2 
> and will flow across? Or, will I also need multi-mices? 8^)

As John said, it basically just works as one big desktop (WinXP takes
care of things like centering popups on the "primary" monitor, instead
of on the split between them). For most apps, including FM, you set
things the way you want them and the app remembers. But you're likely to
get additional features and functions via the utilities provided by the
graphics card maker. 

For instance, at work, I have 2 monitors connected to a quite old nVidia
GeForce 4200. NVidia's nView display utilities provide all kinds of
extra functions and custom settings. You can configure an application to
always start on a specific monitor, you can choose which monitor your
icons, taskbar, and dialogs appear on, and you can enable various window
menu commands for moving windows between monitors, etc. 

To sum up, whether you go with a single wide monitor, two 4:3 monitors,
two wide, or one of each, don't just hook up the cables and call it
done. You need to install the correct drivers, configure the display
settings properly for the native resolution of the monitor(s), and
install whatever display utilities came with the monitor(s) and/or
graphics card. Oh, yeah -- and RTFM! ;-)

HTH!
Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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