Dr Andus
5/17/2018 10:28 pm
Dellu wrote:
The actual physical setup is very important to make it the most comfortable for your back, neck, and eyes, and avoid strain and injury.
The monitors are just one part of the setup. There are all kinds of other hardware and software accessories needed to make it work.
Firstly, the vertical monitor in front of me is kept at optimal height and angle using a special adjustable monitor stand. This allows me not to have to bend my neck but have things right at eye level in front of me.
The height of the desk and the chair also matters (both need to be adjustable).
Then, my laptop on the left is on a special laptop stand, and I use a wireless keyboard and ergonomic mouse instead. The landscape monitor on the right is also on a stand to make it the right height.
The central vertical monitor is always the main workspace (if not, I make sure to rotate the chair and move my keyboard and mouse, so I properly face it). But most of the time the ones on the left and right are for referencing, so I only need to turn my head there occasionally.
Finally, some software enabling you to move and resize windows from monitor to monitor, or to the various halfs and quadrants and the centre of the screen using simple keyboard shortcuts is also essential.
So instead of bending my neck I just use shortcuts to move the given window to the right eye level on the right monitor.
It took some research and investment to get all the different elements in place to create the most optimal setup.
For text editors (for academics), it is also more important to focus
rather than moving around. My intuition of usage of monitors is exactly
like your description here.
A single wide (but nor tall) monitor feels the most convenient for
editing text side by side. If the screen is tall, my intuition is it
will force me to bend down (or just an eye movement) to read the lowest
text in the screen.
But, I could be wrong because I never tried a long monitor (or the
inverted ones as Dr Andus does). it is very interesting that people
prefer different setups. Our physical situations might be factors in
here as well.
The actual physical setup is very important to make it the most comfortable for your back, neck, and eyes, and avoid strain and injury.
The monitors are just one part of the setup. There are all kinds of other hardware and software accessories needed to make it work.
Firstly, the vertical monitor in front of me is kept at optimal height and angle using a special adjustable monitor stand. This allows me not to have to bend my neck but have things right at eye level in front of me.
The height of the desk and the chair also matters (both need to be adjustable).
Then, my laptop on the left is on a special laptop stand, and I use a wireless keyboard and ergonomic mouse instead. The landscape monitor on the right is also on a stand to make it the right height.
The central vertical monitor is always the main workspace (if not, I make sure to rotate the chair and move my keyboard and mouse, so I properly face it). But most of the time the ones on the left and right are for referencing, so I only need to turn my head there occasionally.
Finally, some software enabling you to move and resize windows from monitor to monitor, or to the various halfs and quadrants and the centre of the screen using simple keyboard shortcuts is also essential.
So instead of bending my neck I just use shortcuts to move the given window to the right eye level on the right monitor.
It took some research and investment to get all the different elements in place to create the most optimal setup.