DOUBLE your DESKTOP and DOUBLE PRODUCTIVITY

My clients constantly ask how I can get so much done so fast. I have one major secret I’m ready to share. I give myself lots of room in which to work; on my computer desktop that is. Did you know that you can DOUBLE the size of your computer desktop and in many cases for FREE?!? Learn how and see my nutty desktop that has nearly 20 million pixels and more than 60” of glorious viewing pleasure.

The secret is Windows XP’s native ability to support multiple monitors and create a “virtual desktop” across them. All you have to do is add another monitor and enable the feature in Windows. “Why would I want to do that,” you say? Just imagine being able to see all of the columns in a spreadsheet at once; or being able to look at your calendar while you read an email requesting a meeting. You can even create a chart in Excel and simply drag it to PowerPoint to drop it in your presentation. And, if you have a laptop, you can probably do it for FREE, just by connecting any external monitor.

Here’s the extreme to which I have taken this:

As shown here, I can SIMULTANEOUSLY review a chart in PowerPoint, analyze a spreadsheet and graph in Excel, write you a note in email about what I’ve found, AND check dates on my calendar for us to get together. IT’S AWESOME!! I have two 20” LCDs and a 24” widescreen LCD all connected to the same PC. This means I can view more than 79 columns and 63 rows in Excel at once. I can literally see monthly sales back from today to May of 2000 without scrolling! This may seem like overkill, but in total these screens cost less than $2000 and I am able to do the same work in half the time. That’s a good ROI if you ask me. It’s probably the only reason I get to see my kids.

Shouldn’t you consider investing in this productivity boost for your key people…like ANALYSTS!! It’s amazing to me how many companies give the worst hardware to their most technically astute users that require the most power. These poor folks are asked to review massive amounts of data from multiple systems and then aggregate it into a succinct story. Imagine how much more productive they would be if they could look at two reports at once. My experience has shown that most analysts will increase their productivity by 30-50% with the simple addition of a second 17” LCD monitor which costs less than $200. Even if they only increase productivity 10%, that’s a 2400% return! That’s why I buy the required hardware to allow all of my employees to do this. IT PAYS FOR ITSELF! And they’re happier. It’s a no-brainier.

So here’s how to do it:
If you have a laptop, simply plug in any ol’ monitor into the external VGA port on your machine (you know, the one you plug a projector into). Then, go to your desktop, right click, and select “properties”. This will bring up this window.

Click on the picture of the second monitor and select the little box that says, “Extend my Windows desktop on this monitor.” Click the series of “OKs” and that’s it. Now you have one larger virtual-screen that spans your laptop’s screen and the monitor you attached. [One caveat: You may have to reboot to get the monitor to be recognized. Also some systems have a Fn + some other key you need to press to activate both monitors. At first, they’ll redundantly display the same image, so just follow the instructions above.]

For those whose laptop does not support this, or those with a desktop, you can check out the external video cards from Matrox. With these you can add up to three more monitors, QUADRUPLING your workspace without even cracking the case on your desktop, all for about $200. It’s very worth it and would make a great Christmas gift for any geek you know. Here are some of the latest prices on froogle.

My recommendation for anyone trying to maximize their workspace and budget is to create a similar configuration with four identical 17” LCDs (which are cheap). That would give you lots of space for little cash. And for the retailers in the audience, let’s admit it, you’re all cheap. Get over it and buy that poor analyst a $200 17” LCD (and kick in $100 for a new video card). They’ll feel valued and appreciated, and you’ll be thrilled with the return.

Finally, for my fellow geeks in the audience, I have two NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT cards, each with two digital video ports running in a SLI configuration (with SLI disabled). So, I could add a fourth LCD, which I did for a while, but it took up too much space. If you count my laptop, which is also on my desk, I currently have 19,218,432 pixels, or more than 24 times the typical 1024 X 768 desktop. COOOOOOL!