Why lawyers need a second monitor
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 12:47PM Part of my blogging focus for this year is on LawHacking... basically productivity and workflow for lawyers.
What better place to start than with a pet subject of mine (and something which I regularly get asked about by other lawyers), the concept of beefing up your computer by adding a second (or third!) monitor?
I recently posted on iPad Lawyer about using the iPad as a second monitor to extend your desktop, but what I am really talking about here is the more traditional step of either adding a second monitor to your desktop computer or an external monitor to your laptop so that you can extend your desktop onto both displays.
This isn't a new idea. There has been quite a lot of research on the subject, but a good place to start is this Microsoft Research article from way back in 2003, which hints at a productivity gain of between "9 and 50 per cent" simply by adding a second display.
There has been a lot of debate about the productivity gains. Obviously it depends on what kind of tasks you use your computer for, but in my experience it makes most things faster and easier. Even if you assume a very conservative increase of 5%, the payback time should be short compared to the cost of a new monitor these days (well under £200 for a 17 inch display).
What kind of tasks does it work particularly well for? My top five probably looks a bit like this:-
- Comparing two or more documents side by side
- Cutting and pasting stuff from an email or note from one screen into a document I am drafting on the other
- Dragging and dropping emails from Outlook on one monitor into document management on the other
- Previewing a PowerPoint slideshow on one monitor while tweaking the slides on the other
- Referring to emails in Outlook on one monitor for information I need to type an email in the other
There aren't many tasks on Windows or Mac OS which aren't easier with two displays and you very quickly get used to having the extra real estate and flexibility. In my experience people who have tried it out for a few days are pretty reluctant to go back to a single monitor setup.
How easy is it to do?
With a laptop it is simply a question of plugging the monitor into your VGA out socket.
With a desktop system you may need to add a different or second graphics card, which could make life more difficult. Whilst I haven't used them there are also systems like DisplayLink (who also make the app to extend the desktop onto your iPad via WiFi) which appear to allow USB connectivity.
If you use a terminal server or some other system which means that your physical PC is acting as a thin client then you probably need the multiple monitor setup to be implemented at the server end... hopefully you are on good terms with your IT manager!
Once plugged in you simply need to adjust the display properties to make sure that your desktop is "extended" onto the extra monitor (rather than mirrored, which would just give you two identical displays). You also need to adjust the layout of the monitors to match your physical setup (so that the mouse can move from one display to the other correctly).
Full step-by-step instructions for Windows can be found here and for Mac OS here.
On a Windows system it is worth investing in a utility called Ultramon which adds some extra functionality. It actually does lots of things, but the most useful functions are:-
Extending the Taskbar onto the second monitor (so that you have a separate task bar for applications running on that monitor)
Adding some extra icons alongside the standard Windows "minimise" buttons which allow you to flick a window into the other monitor (or to a monitor of your choice if you have more than two) without having to physically drag them with the mouse.
From there it is simply a matter of arranging windows onto whichever display suits you better.
A couple of words of warning.
One risk of this setup is that it can be distracting if you use it to work on one monitor with your Outlook inbox (or even worse your Twitter client!) open on the other. Generally it makes sense to minimise anything which is going to distract you from the task in hand (as well as taking the standard advice to disable any "new mail" alerts or other popups).
Also, if you use your laptop remotely without the second monitor connected you tend to find that when reconnected to the second monitor all of your windows have moved hack to the laptop display. This is another reason to get Ultramon as you can use it to save the positions for different display setups.
Finally, it becomes very frustrating when you are forced to going back to one display. In fact, this is probably the easiest way to measure how much difference it makes to your workflow. Try a dual monitor setup for a couple of weeks and then trying going back to the old system!
Reader Comments (1)
Great post - and yes, I too can vouch for what a difference having two monitors can make. Granted, it's very tough to readjust if you're on the road with just a laptop or whatever but it's a necessary evil for the productivity gains it gives you back at your regular desk.. Plus, it does up a bunch of extra desk space, though that probably isn't much of a problem for most lawyers! ;-)