dual monitors

I love reading about new computer accessories so that I can share new discoveries with my CLNC^® amigos. Other than Vickie, computer accessories are my sole vice. Like probably every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant out there, the workspace on my desk and around my monitor is decorated with toys and clutter. I’ve got a talking King Julian from Burger King (who reminds me that “I’ve got to move it, move it!”), several Jack-in-the-Box “Jack” heads, photos of Vickie and me, friends, family and past-NACLNC^® conference Top Tens and Tomentary™s, the odd screw or other connector from projects I’m sort of working on and lots of stickies with my reminders of the things I’ve got to move them, move them. If there is a pattern in the chaos, I haven’t discovered it yet.

Vickie’s workspace, except for her photos which overflow her little acrylic memo holders, is the exact opposite. Clean and orderly. Well, I tried to put an end to that. While reading through my various tech magazines and “products of the year,” I found one product that sounded interesting and one that I found dubious. I took the liberty of ordering the fun accessory for Vickie for Christmas (we celebrate 12 Days of Christmas and this was her first gift).

The accessory is from Iconic Tsunami (great name) and is called a FACEMATE™. It’s a siliconish, rubbery thingy that wraps around your computer monitor’s exterior frame and allows you to slide photos, reminders and other similar items under its rim so that they can stand up or out. They come in pink, blue and black. I ordered hers in blue to match her office and I’m hoping she’ll love it. I’m going to surprise her by festooning her monitor with photos of her niece Reese, Vince’s horse Levi, family, friends and most importantly, me. Hopefully it won’t interrupt the Zen/Feng Shui-ness of her space.

Not personally suffering from any sort of neatness syndrome or desire, I think it’s a wonderful accessory and I am hoping Vickie likes hers enough to get me two for my birthday for the dual monitors at the office. I feel they’d help keep me on track! I’d definitely recommend the FACEMATE product to any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who needs to turn her monitor into a visual reminder and bulletin board combination.

And now for something completely different. As I state during my lecture on How to Formulate and Negotiate Contracts at the CLNC^® Certification Program, there are two types of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants: those who divide people into two types and those who don’t. For the purposes of today’s Tuesday Tech Tip, let’s assume there are more types of CLNC^® consultants: those who are CLNC^® cat people, those who are CLNC^® dog people and those who are neither. This is important because of the other accessory, one that I’m dubious about.

A long time ago in the years B.V. (Before Vickie), and even B.C. (Before I had a Computer), I had a couple of cats. If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know that they will ignore you and pretend that you don’t exist until one of three things happen: 1) it’s meal time, 2) the litter box is full or 3) you begin working on something important. In the case of #3, as soon as you open any sort of work, your cat will immediately find it necessary to come and lie on top of it. In the years B.V., this included my notes from law school, any newspaper I was reading or anything else on my desk (ask me about the messy fountain pen and blue cat story later). If you’ve been around cats you understand it isn’t enough to sit on your lap, cats are all born under the astrological sign of Leo and know, not just believe, that it’s ALL about them. In short, they need to be where the action is – on your work and probably on your keyboard (another reason to hide your iPad^®).

It’s been an even longer time since I’ve owned a dog, but my memory of dogs is that they’re happy to sit at your feet waiting for you to drop a piece of brownie or whatever other savory snack you’re chewing on while you work. Dogs, unless they’re some goofy purse-sized breed, are generally polar opposites from cats in terms of temperament. In other words, they stay out of your work until it’s play time.

This takes me to the newly released CatNix partition for your desk. This is designed to be a pair of small screens that you set up on either side of your computer monitor with the intent of keeping your cat (or cats) from sneaking around the back of your monitor, plopping itself on your keyboard and disrupting that legal nurse consulting report you’re working on for your favorite attorney-client. Take a look at the picture on the CatNix homepage and if you’re a cat-owner, past or present, ask yourself: how long it will take for good ‘ole Kitty Galore to circumvent those screens by leaping directly onto your keyboard either from your chair or the nearest, highest perch? This is one product that I can hear cats laughing about all over town.

Interestingly enough, I do see one practical application for this product. That would be to create a sense of privacy around your monitor. Many office layouts don’t provide a good degree of privacy around the desks or cubicles. This might be a way to protect your screen from being viewed by various miscreants in your home or work location without having to resort to a privacy screen.

Those are today’s tech tips. Next week is my First Annual Festivus list of what I’d like to see from the tech world for Christmas. See you then. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your cat and dog stories about how they help, hinder or generally interfere with your work.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

All Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know I’m a fan of dual monitors. I can’t live without them and when I’m saddled with my laptop’s single monitor, say when I’m traveling or sitting in the back pew in church, I feel the pain. It’s funny. Once you go to dual monitors you never want a single monitor again. Just ask any of the staff members here at Vickie Milazzo Institute.

That being said, the more monitors you have, the more programs you open. The more programs you open, the more difficulty you have keeping track of what’s open. The more difficulty you have, well, you get the idea.

I’ve often wished for a way to install the handy Microsoft^® Windows^® Taskbar at the bottom or side (yes, you can move it to the side) on both my monitors. Recently I learned that the kind people at MediaChance heard my wish and made it come true! If you follow this link to MediaChance’s MultiMon download page, you too can get a free copy of their simple MultiMon, multiple taskbar program. Once downloaded and installed on all the dual-monitor-enabled computers you use in your legal nurse consulting business, it will imbed itself in your Windows start-up menu so every time you start your computer, MultiMon will start automatically with no fuss and no muss!

Once running, it will keep track of the files you have open on each monitor and display them just like the Windows taskbar. If you want to spring for $28, you can get the “Pro” version which is customizeable and does some neat tricks, but I think the free version is more than enough for most legal nurse consultants. In fact, this is one of the best freeware programs I’ve run across. MultiMon will reduce your Windows-related headaches and save you all that time you spend fishing around those cool dual monitors. Now my CLNC^® amigos, as Vickie says, you can get some real work done.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Okay, I’ve got to admit something. You’ve heard me brag about my dual 20″ monitors on my desk. Here’s the confession. I’ve gotten to the point where I cannot work without two monitors staring me in the face. In my office, I keep my email open on one monitor (the right) so I can do the ADD thing as soon as something important that requires me to drop what I’m doing and immediately attend to someone else’s problem, drops into my email box. I do turn off the sound so the pinging doesn’t drive me totally bonkers.

The left (really center) monitor is my workspace. This is where I do the important things (write my Tuesday Tech Tips, surf the Internet and occasionally some real work). I’m constantly mousing back and forth between the two monitors. If I’m editing documents, I’ll keep one document open on one monitor and drag another to the other. I even accidentally discovered that in Outlook you can right click the calendar or email icons at the bottom left and open either in a new window! That way when I’m putting a deadline from an email into my calendar or preparing another list of my availability dates to send to President Obama, I don’t have to depend on my bad memory, I just look back and forth.

Legal nurse consultants, if you haven’t tried duals you’re missing out. These are even more fun than using tabbed browsing in Firefox to look at multiple websites. The possibilities are endless. I haven’t tried spreading a spreadsheet across the two… maybe later. Think about working on your reports for your attorney-clients. You can have the scanned medical records on one screen and your report on the other while doing research in the background.

“Tom,” you might be wondering, “you’re a lowly laptop user – how did you plug two monitors into a laptop?” Well the answer is simple. I’ve got my dock, and my dock has two different outputs on the back for monitors – a standard VGA output (old school) for the monitor I put on top of the dock’s built-in stand and a DVI output (modern). Probably the designers figured people would have one type of monitor input (VGA or DVI) so they were building-in choice. By buying a second monitor with the DVI output, I was able to plug in a second monitor!

Newer docks are already on the DVI bandwagon and often come with two DVI outputs as well as the one good old VGA output. Check carefully before you buy. After you get your dock, you simply match your monitors to the output and away you go!

If you don’t yet own a dock (or port-replicator in geek-speak) you can still run duals on your laptop. You simply plug a second monitor into your laptop’s output (VGA or DVI) then boot up the laptop keeping the screen open. Once it’s booted, right-click anywhere on the screen (desktop in geek-speak). Click Properties, click Settings and tell it to Extend my Windows Desktop onto this monitor or specify both monitors as Attached depending upon what you see. If you plug a keyboard and mouse into the laptop, you don’t have to keep it up close and can even mount it on a laptop stand to raise the screen to eye level.

Now it gets cool. You can drag the monitor icons on the Settings screen left or right. This allows you to place your second screen to the left or right of your main and then roll your mouse off the left or right (depending upon where you place your monitor) of your screen and right onto the second monitor. Your cursor can fly through the thin air between two monitors!

Desktop owners, don’t start crying in your beer (or Perrier) yet. You may be able to do the same trick since most newer desktop computers support dual monitors right out of the box. You could be ready and not even know it. Look on the back of your computer (don’t sneeze from the dust). If you can find more than one VGA or DVI outputs on the video card that sticks out from the back of your computer, then you’re ready to go. Buy a second monitor with inputs that match your free output, plug it in and follow the steps above to activate it.

If you only have one output (VGA or DVI) you can haul your computer to the local geek store and they can drop in a second video card or replace your current one with a card that has dual monitor support for under $100. If you really want to create monitor envy in your friends, instead of replacing your old single card – add the second dual port card. Then, if you have the wall space, you can have three monitors! You’ll triple your work output.

There is one other option for the spacially challenged. At home, I don’t have the desk space for duals, instead I had to compromise and install just one freakin’ huge 26″ wide-screen monitor. YEAH, BABY! It’s like sitting in the first row of a movie theater and I love it. It’s big enough that I can open two slightly narrower versions of the dual windows I use at work without feeling (too) compromised by the smaller space and it keeps me from getting claustrophobic. If you don’t have enough desk space for duals, take my advice and do the next best thing, “Go wide, young CLNC^® consultant!”

Time to tech-out here, so think about the duals. I’ve got to warn you – they’re addictive. Now, when I’m on a plane, train or automobile and I’m working from my laptop’s single (but wide) screen I can just about scream from frustration when I can’t work in the dual manner and style to which I have become accustomed.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

P.S. Comment and share your experiences with dual or more! monitors.