Dual monitors with CAT systems: one horizontal, one vertical, or both the same?
Tomás Cano Binder, CT Spain Local time: 12:58 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
Mar 24, 2010
Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,
We in the office are about to upgrade the main machines to dual monitors. Yes, it's 2010... how the hell have we survived with two monitors this long?
Now, our main tool is a side-by-side CAT tool (MemoQ in particular), and it will not be long until we are forced to buy SDL Trados Studio 2009 as well. We are using Trados 2007 less and less every day. In that sense, we prefer a wide monitor (now we have 22-inch wide monitors). However, when it comes to reading specs, looking at reference PDFs, researching on the web, or doing proofreading work, it would be a lot better to have a vertical monitor to reduce scrolling efforts.
So the question is: does a setup with a horizontal monitor and a vertical monitor make any sense to you, or does your experience prove that it is best to have two monitors the same size (for instance because that way you can move windows from one to the other without the hassle of resizing)?
Thank you very much in advance for any hints!
Best,
Tomás
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Emma Goldsmith Spain Local time: 12:58 Member (2010) Spanish to English
resizing of monitors
Mar 24, 2010
I've used two monitors for about a year now, and generally have Trados Studio on my main 20" monitor and Word or pdf on my 17".
I don't find it a problem to resize. Since you have to "restore" (not sure if that's right in English, my button says restaurar in Spanish) the window or double-click on the title bar, then you only have to click on "maximise" after you have dragged the window and it will automatically fit the different monitor size. So you don't actually have to resize the edges of the window by hand.
By the way, what is a vertical monitor? Is it one you have in portrait mode?
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Philippe Etienne Spain Local time: 12:58 Member English to French
My setup
Mar 24, 2010
I have MemoQ full screen on a 22" facing me and a bit on the side à 17" CRT (no comment please) for Internet, pdfs and whatever reference.
Maybe a vertical reference screen would help instead of my 4/3 prehistoric tube. However I am not sure the gain in productivity is worth any purchase of a flat screen with portrait layout.
Caveat: if pixel heights are different, moving the cursor is not so smooth.
In my layout, with 768 vertical pixels on one screen and 1050 on the other, there are places on the vertical border where the cursor remains "stuck". And it is anoying. I therefore suggest that screens have the same vertical pixel height, while still being legible.
Philippe
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT Spain Local time: 12:58 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
TOPIC STARTER
Vertical monitor, yes I meant a portrait-mode monitor
Mar 24, 2010
Emma Goldsmith wrote:
By the way, what is a vertical monitor? Is it one you have in portrait mode?
Thanks for the information Emma! Yes, of course I meant a monitor on portrait mode.
Thanks for the hints, guys!!
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Jabberwock Poland Local time: 12:58 Member (2004) English to Polish
Go with pivot
Mar 24, 2010
The beauty of the pivot monitor is that you can switch from horizontal to vertical on the fly. It is slightly more complicated with dual monitor setup, but still quite possible. Most monitors have software kits that help with rotation, so do the graphics cards.
That is why I would buy pivot monitors and try out different combinations (after all, you can have both portrait monitors as well!). There is no difference in price and you can always stay with horizontal if you don't see the advantage.
And you can read comics properly after hours
Update:
After rereading your question I've realized that you are probably asking whether the second monitor is to have the longer side of the same size (resolution) as the shorter side of the first one... This one is tricky, I'm afraid.
For starters, it would be rather difficult to find such monitors where the size and resolution match perfectly. I suppose I would buy two same-size pivot monitors.
[Edited at 2010-03-24 11:09 GMT]
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Pablo Bouvier Spain Local time: 12:58 Member German to Spanish + ...
Dual monitors with CAT systems: one horizontal, one vertical, or both the same?" del foro "Hardware
Mar 24, 2010
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,
We in the office are about to upgrade the main machines to dual monitors. Yes, it's 2010... how the hell have we survived with two monitors this long?
Now, our main tool is a side-by-side CAT tool (MemoQ in particular), and it will not be long until we are forced to buy SDL Trados Studio 2009 as well. We are using Trados 2007 less and less every day. In that sense, we prefer a wide monitor (now we have 22-inch wide monitors). However, when it comes to reading specs, looking at reference PDFs, researching on the web, or doing proofreading work, it would be a lot better to have a vertical monitor to reduce scrolling efforts.
So the question is: does a setup with a horizontal monitor and a vertical monitor make any sense to you, or does your experience prove that it is best to have two monitors the same size (for instance because that way you can move windows from one to the other without the hassle of resizing)?
Thank you very much in advance for any hints!
Best,
Tomás
Hi, Tomás: As I was working in both fields (translation & software development) I had a monitor that could be turned vertically and horizontally that resized monitors image automatically. I ignore if they still exist.
When it was used for programming or desktop publishing it was usually placed vertically and for all the rest it was placed horizontally. But, the true thing is that I had it almost vertical, because pages are usually written in the same manner. From my point of view, I prefer vertical monitors to landscape monitors, but I guess it depends of what kind of work you are just doing.
[Editado a las 2010-03-24 11:20 GMT]
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT Spain Local time: 12:58 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
TOPIC STARTER
Pivoting would be best indeed!
Mar 24, 2010
OK! I will research that too! Thanks a million for the hint!
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