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The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait

Posted by timothy on from the makes-it-hard-to-type dept.

Molly McHugh writes The vast majority of computer-related tasks see no benefit from a screen that is longer than it is tall. Sure, video playback and gaming are some key exceptions, but if you watch Netflix on your TV instead of your computer monitor and you're not into PC gaming, that long, wide display is doing nothing but hampering your experience. Let's flip it. No, seriously. Let's flip it sideways.

6 of 567 comments (clear)

  1. You're Doing It Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The examples show lots of web sites in a maximized browser window. I use my widescreen monitor in landscape mode so I can have multiple windows simultaneously visible side-by-side. The examples are doing it poorly!

  2. Everything old is new again by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Portrait monitors were all the rage back in the 90's. All the desktop publishing people used them for working with Aldus Pagemaker.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  3. Re:Depends by landoltjp · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just got turned on by this.

  4. Re:Have Both by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I use my monitor rotated in portrait mode and rotated 270 degrees.

    I've rotated my screen 360 degrees :-)

    "The vast majority of computer-related tasks see no benefit from a screen that is longer than it is tall."

    Seriously, most of todays screens are so big that you can fit 2 pages side-by-side, which is a lot more convenient than one page at a time in portrait mode. Ditto for individual windows. Rotating them into portrait mode will cause neck strain as you have to tilt your head back to properly see the top.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  5. Snap: Tiling window manager in Windows 7+ by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Setting a system so that 'maximize' only expands a window to fill half of your giant wide screen

    In Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, pressing Win+Left or Win+Right (or dragging a window's title bar to the left or right edge) will "Snap" it, which expands it to fill half the screen. In previous versions of Windows, you could do something similar by clicking one window's title in the taskbar, Ctrl+right-clicking another, and choosing Tile Vertically.

  6. Re:Have Both by Ottibus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've rotated my screen 360 degrees :-)

    Does it improve the picture now that you have twisted cables?

    Make sure you rotate by -360 degress in the Southern Hemisphere or the electrons will get tangled.