If you have multiple monitors and do a lot of reading online, one thing you might want to consider is turning one of your monitors on its side and then changing the orientation. The reason for this is when you maximize your browser/PDF/emails/etc. on an upright monitor, the orientation resembles an 8.5×11 page (at least more so than a the monitor being in its typical orientation) and usually fits more text in the window.

Most flat panel monitors can be easily rotated to accomodate this change, so the only thing you would need to do is rotate your screen alignment. I know Intel graphic engines (what I use) can do this easily within the provided graphics software, so I am pretty sure most all other graphic drivers can accomplish this as well.

This change may not be for everyone, but as I mentioned earlier it is worth a shot if you do a lot of reading online.

A problem with using multiple monitors in Windows is you can only have your taskbar across the bottom of one of them. While this isn’t a huge inconvenience, it can be a nuisance nonetheless. If you find this behavior annoying, take a look at Oscar’s Multi-Monitor Taskbar.

This free program creates a taskbar along the bottom of each of your monitors and only displays the programs running on that monitor respectively. Some features from the web site:

• It adds second taskbar to the extended desktop on Monitor 2
• It can add third taskbar to the second Extended monitor if you have 3 monitors setup
• It shows only applications from that Monitor
• It hides the applications on Monitor 2 and 3 from normal Windows Taskbar
• Adds a Move to Monitor button to windows applications (XP).

Essentially, this program would make it seem as though each monitor is hooked up to a separate computer with regards to what appears in the taskbar.

There is a Pro version of the Multi-Monitor Taskbar program which adds several additional functions, so if you like the free version, give the upgrade a try.