A Technology Trick to Boost Productivity
By Witt Sparks 

As a VA, you are probably all too accustomed to juggling multiple tasks, most of which are computer based. Emails to reply to, web sites to update, and articles to write consume your time and your windows desktop. Soon the task bar at the bottom of the screen is so crowded you don’t remember which Excel spreadsheet had the client’s accounting and which one had your monthly billing statement. Soon you spend more time clicking between windows trying to keep on top of everything than actually working.

You can invest in a larger monitor to get more screen real estate, but the cost of monitors rises exponentially with size. A little known trick is to buy a second monitor. Plugged into your computer, a second monitor allows you to drag windows and icons from one monitor to the other. The mouse moves smoothly from one to the other. When the pointer reaches the edge of one monitor, it jumps to the next screen. I can open my email program in one window and have my client’s monthly records visible on the left monitor while I enter the values into Excel on the right monitor, and never have to minimize a window. Or code HTML on the left and view a preview on the right. Microsoft Windows supports such configurations, and getting it to work is surprisingly easy. The following step-by-step process shows you how it works.

1. Make sure your operating system supports multiple monitors.

This is easy. Microsoft windows supports multiple “heads” (in industry lingo) back to Windows 98. All Apple G4 products support multiple monitors, as do all Sun products. If you’re using Linux, you’ll have to consult the documentation for your release. This article focuses on how to install a second monitor under Microsoft Windows XP. For other operating systems, consult your user manual or contact technical support.

2. Does your computer hardware support multiple monitors?

First a quick tech education for the not-so-hardware-inclined. Every computer has a specialized electronic component that tells the monitor what to display. This component is called the video board, video card, or graphics adaptor. In desktop systems, the graphics adapter is sometimes on a separate expansion card that plugs into a slot inside the computer. In other systems, the graphics adaptor is part of the main processor board (called the motherboard).

For desktop users, it’s simple to see if the graphics adaptor supports multiple monitors. If there is more than one VGA port on the back of the computer, then it almost certainly does. More and more newer systems are coming with multiple display support standard. Older computers, however, probably have a video card that supports a single monitor. In that case you have two options. The first is to buy an additional PCI video card to install along with the existing card. This could present challenges, however, as sometimes two video cards won’t play nicely together in a single computer, causing conflicts with memory addresses or interrupts.

Consult your system’s documentation for instructions on how to open your computer’s case, remove the old card, and insert the new card.

When you restart Windows, it will automatically recognize the new hardware and may ask you to insert a CD that came with the graphics adaptor.

If you open your computer and find that the graphics adaptor is part of the motherboard (in other words there is no graphics card to remove and replace), all is not lost. Most motherboards have a way to deactivate the built in card so that you can install a separate card. Instructions for doing this will be in your users manual, or you may have to contact technical support for your machine.

For laptop users, you’ll have to determine what type of graphics adaptor you have and whether it supports multiple displays. I have a Dell Inspiron 8500 with an ATI Radeon 9000 graphics adaptor. I found the graphics adaptor type by opening the control panel, clicking "displays," then clicking "settings." Next I went to ATI’s website and looked up the Radeon 9000 and found that it does indeed support multiple displays.

If your laptop’s graphics adaptor does not support multiple displays, you may be out of luck. Contact the manufacturer to see if it is possible to upgrade the graphics adaptor to one that does.

3. Plug in your second monitor and configure the software.

Once you determine that your video card supports multiple displays or you have made the necessary hardware upgrades, it’s time to plug in a new monitor and make it all work. With the new monitor turned off, plug it in to the empty VGA output on your video adaptor. Or, in the case of a laptop, to the VGA output on the back of the computer. Turn on the second monitor. Open the control panel, open "displays," and click the "settings" tab.

You should see a blue area with two boxes in it (see figure 1), labeled "1" and "2." Click on box 2. Select the checkbox labeled "Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor." Push Apply. The new monitor should activate. Push the "Identify" button. A large 1 and 2 should appear on the monitors. By dragging the boxes, arrange them so that they match the arrangement of the monitors on your desk. This will ensure that the mouse cursor behaves intuitively when moving from one monitor to the other. Selecting each box will allow you to modify the screen resolution and color settings for the corresponding monitor. Set up the resolution on the new monitor to your liking and push apply.

If the settings tab in the displays window doesn’t look like I’ve described, it’s possible that the video driver you have doesn’t support multiple displays, even if the hardware does. Contact the manufacturer to obtain the correct drivers.

Now you should be able move the mouse between monitors, and drag windows as well.

Microsoft Windows XP supports up to 10 monitors on a single computer. For more information on this topic including how to build your very own video wall, visit http://www.multiplemonitors.org/.

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Witt Sparks, writer and programmer by trade and an avid adventurer and traveler. See his web site at www.peakonetech.com or travel with Witt at www.africaoverland.info