I had already discussed use of multiple monitors with Microsoft PowerPoint to make your presentations easier. When ever I am in my workplace I use extra monitor with my laptop. I just love using that.
First important thing linux inbuilt support multiple monitor with lots of features so I am not talking about linux os in this section, I am talking aobut Microsoft Windows.
Remember the computer setup in movie Swordfish ?
Dont you like that kinda of setup ??
Well I was also fascinated by that kinda of setup. I will discuss multiple techniques you can use to get that kind of setup. But money does matters so first I will describe about hardware options to get this kinda setup then I will describe software options.
1) If you have lots of money to invest on this setup then you can go for laptop docking station. Something as seen at http://www.digitaltigers.com/sidecar.asp
This kinda of hardware setup can provide you lots of flexibility in terms of how you can use your multiple monitor setup.
2) If you dont have that kinda money (which is always the case with lots of us) then you can go for some other options like using laptops vga out to connect secondary monitor. In this case you can drag drop your applications on the secondary monitor and distribute space taken by your applications.
If you haven't used multiple monitors read the article from Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307873
When I started using multiple desktops this way then first thing I noticed was there was no taskbar on the second desktop. After you drag drop applications on second monitor then also the taskbar icons stay on first monitor only. So my taskbar was becoming crowded. So I was looking for a solution which will give me second monitor with taskbar also. I found some solutions like http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
which give can give multiple desktops with taskbar also. If you dont want to go for paid solution then there is Multimon http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm which is freeware and only place a taskbar on the second desktop. Which application you drop on second monitor it will take taskbar icon to the its taskbar on second monitor. freemon taskbar dont have lots of fancy options but it does the work.
You can directly download mmtaskbar from this location http://www.mediachance.com/free/mmtaskbar21.exe
3) But you might have noticed that I was only talking about the second monitor and not multiple monitors, but laptops only have one VGA output. So only one monitor can be attached to it. So what about multiple monitor setup ???
Well multiple monitor you will need monitors. Even if you have monitors how will you connect them without hardware. So you cant do anything without getting some costly hardware ??
Well low cost solution is there If you have some spare computer or laptops. There is software solution by using which you can extend your monitor on any machine in the network. Maxivista is the name of one of such products found at http://www.maxivista.com/.
I have tried maxivista with total 4 monitors at a time, and it was working fine. So here you go... Now you can have your own setup like movies.
