whats the benifit - second Monitor on an iMac

[iPhil]

Thanks Guy's as the saying goes......By George I think he's got it

so now if I think of the iMac display & a separate external monitor as One big monitor I can't go wrong .

So I'm going to give it a try and connect a second monitor to the iMac, any advice or tips ..?


star

Go equal to the main screen size or Bigger... And use a mini-dvi to dvi dongle

 

[danny_w]

I have never gotten used to multiple monitors before, they only bothered me and did not seem very productive for my style of work. When I recently for an iMac at work, I bought an adapter and hooked up a second monitor. However, Leopard has Spaces, and I also use that, so I have both at the same time. This has worked fairly well, but Leopard seems to have problems with Spaces and multiple monitors (I am still running 10.5.1 b/c I have read of so many issues with 10.5.2). Spaces seems to "forget" where windows are sometimes and I have a very hard time getting the windows back that I just had and never closed; they are still "there" but invisible and can't be accessed. I am going to try removing the 2nd monitor and see if the issue goes away. Has anybody else experienced this?

 

[ghettochris]

For example:

(grabbed from apple site)

you guys have got to think bigger than that

too bad you need a mac pro with 3 of your slots filled with graphics cards.

I have an imac 20 inch and it feels naked when not hooked to my 23" acd that is used as the main desktop, then i have an imac screen sitting there i can watch movies or tv on the net on while i do stuff. for photo, video, etc it's nice to have one for full screen preview all the time.

if nothing else, i just leave up freefall, basically a virtual globe (and satellites) that has the correct day and night line, and current clouds. like you were thousands of miles out in space looking back at the planet. I like the view straight down from the north pole, like a giant 24 hour clock, noon is straight up, midnight straight down on the screen. moves half the speed of the hour hand on the watch, but the other way.

 

[Schnebar]

would that mean you can have Two applications running at the same time on Two different monitors, controlled from one keyboard..?


star

Yeah but it is more like just a bigger desktop.

You do not need to have a different applications running on each monitor.

You can drag a safari window to the other monitor or even leave it half on one side and half on the other.

I have a second monitor for my imac and it is great.

Even with 4 spaces I still manage to use all the room.

 

[Eidorian]

If we're going to talk about monitors.

 

[design-is]

If I can ever afford to blow a load of money on something I realllllly don't need, I think I'll buy one of these:

 

[ghettochris]

can anyone beat 50 monitors?

http://www.plastk.net/highres/50mon/

or quake running on 24?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqB01Cp_wPM

nice use of the gyro mouse too! my favorite thing ever.

mwahahahaha

http://infovis.cs.vt.edu/gigapixel/projects.html

 

[harcosparky]

OOPS ...

50 monitors? that's insane!

 

[skwij]

Now that's just nuts.

Couple of shots of my duals. Yeah, they're both Dells, and not newer ones, but they should illustrate to the OP that what s/he's wanting to do is definately possible.

This one shows the duals with the 22" and Firefox as the active monitor:

Then just move the mouse cursor over to the 19", click the Mail window, and it becomes active, allowing full use of keyboard and mouse.

I often have multiple apps open, and even multiple windows with multiple chats.

This is also with Tiger 10.4.9, not Leopard, so no Spaces option with my desktop system.

 

[eXan]

So I'm going to give it a try and connect a second monitor to the iMac, any advice or tips ..?


star

Man, just connect it and stop asking the same thing over and over again

 

[John.B]

if nothing else, i just leave up freefall, basically a virtual globe (and satellites) that has the correct day and night line, and current clouds. like you were thousands of miles out in space looking back at the planet. I like the view straight down from the north pole, like a giant 24 hour clock, noon is straight up, midnight straight down on the screen. moves half the speed of the hour hand on the watch, but the other way.

Link please?

 

[wamoinc]

Now that's just nuts.

Couple of shots of my duals. Yeah, they're both Dells, and not newer ones, but they should illustrate to the OP that what s/he's wanting to do is definately possible.

This one shows the duals with the 22" and Firefox as the active monitor:


Then just move the mouse cursor over to the 19", click the Mail window, and it becomes active, allowing full use of keyboard and mouse.


I often have multiple apps open, and even multiple windows with multiple chats.

This is also with Tiger 10.4.9, not Leopard, so no Spaces option with my desktop system.

SO tell me would this work with a MacBook Pro or only with the iMac? We just got a MacBook Pro at my church to run the video/ppt for church and having the issue of not being able to make corrections on the fly without seeing it on the screen. SO if this worked we could have a window with the running program open and make corrections on the MBP screen?? Or would the big screen show the changes as they were being made?? Or is there a program that will let you run an external monitor/projector and work on the MBP unseen?? We had one that worked on a PC but not sure if we can get one for Mac?? Thanks

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

SO tell me would this work with a MacBook Pro or only with the iMac? We just got a MacBook Pro at my church to run the video/ppt for church and having the issue of not being able to make corrections on the fly without seeing it on the screen. SO if this worked we could have a window with the running program open and make corrections on the MBP screen?? Or would the big screen show the changes as they were being made?? Or is there a program that will let you run an external monitor/projector and work on the MBP unseen?? We had one that worked on a PC but not sure if we can get one for Mac?? Thanks

You can have a dual display with the MBP or you can have the external monitor show the same thing as the built-in screen (known as mirroring).

 

[wamoinc]

You can have a dual display with the MBP or you can have the external monitor show the same thing as the built-in screen (known as mirroring).

Ok so would either of these work for us, or am I still going to run into issues if I am modifying the .ppt file I am showing on screen....am I making sense? Which of those methods gives you the effect of one large monitor spread over the two? Thanks

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Ok so would either of these work for us, or am I still going to run into issues if I am modifying the .ppt file I am showing on screen....am I making sense? Which of those methods gives you the effect of one large monitor spread over the two? Thanks

With it set up as dual monitors, it would be, in essence, one big monitor spread over the two screens. So in theory, what you want to do should work as long as you are only showing people the external monitor.

One question, though: how can you modify a PPT file while you are showing it as a slideshow?

 

[spamdumpster]

Better yet, at work I have two monitors, each connected to a different machine, but seamlessly controlled by a single mouse and keyboard, using synergy.

One machine runs XP, the other runs Leopard 10.5.2. Copy and paste works across the two machines.

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Better yet, at work I have two monitors, each connected to a different machine, but seamlessly controlled by a single mouse and keyboard, using synergy.

One machine runs XP, the other runs Leopard 10.5.2. Copy and paste works across the two machines.

My wife is about to a setup where she is going to share her cinema display between her MacBook Pro and a PC with a KVM switch. Is there a way to use Synergy with this type of setup or do you have to have two monitors to use it?

 

[wamoinc]

With it set up as dual monitors, it would be, in essence, one big monitor spread over the two screens. So in theory, what you want to do should work as long as you are only showing people the external monitor.

One question, though: how can you modify a PPT file while you are showing it as a slideshow?

on our PC laptop we ran a program made for churches that sort of hijacks the external output, so you can do whatever you want on the laptop and it doesn't show on the external monitor. So you can open PPT, edit your slides and drop them back into the Sunday Plus software and keep on going. About as best I can explain it. So we are trying to avoid buying another license for the software because they do make a Mac version. So trying to save money if we can. Thanks