Usage of an External Monitor - What is Your Setup?

Have a look at this thread for an idea of what people do - lots of pictures http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=649044

 

A dual monitor is very productive! I'm a Uni student and it allows for a lot more multi tasking on screen! Documents, web pages, videos, projects.

I tend to have:

Space 1: MSN an random folders documents on my MBP screen, and my external for firefox and a document.

Space 2: Purely for mail and calender, one on each screen.

Space 3: iTunes, VMware fusion, iWeb

Space 4: For a free space environment with limited distraction lol.

Don't forget how expose makes it so easy to find what you are looking for on screen anyway!

 

This works well for me. 24" LCD with a the MBP.

 

I've got my 24" off to the right of my Macbook right now, sitting of 4 beanbag cubes, with a fan pumping air out of under it, and an eternal keyboard and speakers. Works just like a desktop.

 

I have my mb on front of me, using the built in screen and keyboard (with an external bluetooth mouse), then a 19" monitor sitting just above the mb, run dual screen.

This way I have two screens worth of space to work with, plus the usual spaces. At the moment for example I have safari fullscreen on the external monitor, and secondary windows like adium running in the mb screen - this way gives me a big main screen, while still keeping some less visually orientated but still important screens available.
Moving to photo work, I can have a photo open on the large screen, with the smaller screen hosting the main software and thumbnails so I can easily flick back and forth between chosen images.

The same idea could be setup for countless applications depending on what you use, word processing on the main screen while keeping email open in the lower, keeping reference documents or chat windows open while typing out work or any other combination.

Add in spaces and you have a pretty versatile setup - I can have safari/adium open in one pairing, then itunes open in a separate window I can flick to if I want to change the music, and photo software open in another so I can flick between internet/chat and photo based work.

 

I just have a 19" next to my MacBook (White - as I need FireWire) and have the MacBook on the desk, it just takes a bit of getting used to looking down as well as right to see the next screen. I tend to keep everything in 4 spaces:
Space 1 - Adobe CS4 and Twitterific
Space 2 - Safari, Mail and iTunes
Space 3 - Pages, Keynote, work stuff
Space 4 - iMovie HD and GarageBand

 

My 22" LCD display off to the right, my MacBook or MacBook Pro on the desk in front of me, depending on which one I'm using (or which one my wife needs). For longer work sessions, I plug in an external mouse.

+1 for the comment above that mentioned increased productivity. This makes a huge difference for me.