The best and most comprehensive video on the topic of setting up and working with multiple monitors. Most other videos on this topic are made by people who have never worked with such setups and clearly don't have any context whatsoever about what they are dealing with. Hence they end up dishing out the usual advise that everyone already knows these days. But Oliver has clearly taken extraordinary pains to put himself in the situation, understood the setting intimately and studied the reasons behind why people use such setups. Then he seems to have spent days on understanding the subtle differences between using different numbers, sizes and combinations of displays before even beginning to offer advise. Then he has figured out the best possible ways of dealing with the stress that various combinations can cause and only then has he come up with meaningful and worthwhile advise on the topic. Kudos to Oliver for his intelligence and the genuine interest in understanding the problem he is solving. Please keep up the good work!!
Thank you, after pandemic and remote work started, Iam using your videos as my main guide to setup all parts of my workspace. Now I feel much better after working day.
Here’s a simple dominant eye test to determine which eye is your preferred eye: Extend your arms out in front of you and create a triangular opening between your thumbs and forefingers by placing your hands together at a 45-degree angle . With both eyes open, center this triangular opening on a distant object - such as a wall clock or door knob. Close your left eye. If the object stays centered, your right eye (the one that’s open) is your dominant eye. If the object is no longer framed by your hands, your left eye is your dominant eye.
Very helpful, thank you. Any thoughts on vertical screens? Some advocate a horisontal main screen and a secondary (or even tertiary) screen rotated vertically. Arguably the left-right rotation of the neck would be less since screens are typically rectangular. If you avoid placing the vertical screens above eye-level, is it a feasible solution?
Wouldn't it make sense to have a screen on the non-dominant eye side so to train it? Also, is it always bad if by the means of the setup we create a need to move around instead of seating still?
The idea of training your eyes isn't bad per se. It's just that you can't train it for 8 hours a day. So once in a while, why not... but when you work, just work (and take breaks!!) 😅
What should the angle between the main monitor and the side monitors in a three monitor configuration? Also, why should the monitor be se low (i.e. below the line of view)? How do we find the perfect height of the monitor for us?
Difficult quesiton reg. the angle. What I would do is a bit different: I would take a line perpendicular to the screen, starting in the middle of the screen. For each screen, this line should land onto your nose... Reg. height, here is your answer: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html
I think I mention that in the video... I find it a better solution than 2 screens: it can be used as a single screen most of the time, and as a double screen when you really need one. It grants increased flexibility, in a way. Without being more expensive anymore. Makes sense 😀?
@@OlivierGirardIt makes sense it could be a more flexible solution. But from an ergonomic standpoint, are there reasons to avoid two monitors and choose an ultrawide instead?
@@manuelmungenast4121 don't think that I want to play smart ass... but flexibility is precisely the ergonomic standpoint that would make me choose an ultrawide monitor: depending on my activity, I could choose the optimal placement of the windows. So over the day, the load on my neck would be reduced, even if some times I would have been working in a "2 screen configuration". Do you see what I mean?
Question for triple setup . Would you preffer 60° of angle between the monitors to create basically a full arc or less, eg. 40°? With 32" displays the latter seems to require less neck but more body movement in my case.
It's a super great question my friend... this depends indeed on the width of your monitors. Your goal is to try and draw a circle with your eyes as the centre. Hence (if I go back to thinking like an engineer😂), I would - adjust the viewing distance to the middle of the central monitor - reproduce the same distance with the centres of the side monitors, - harmonize the viewing distance between left and right extremities of the side monitors, i.e. rotate them around their middle until you minimize the variance of the viewing distance across the total width of your screens... Makes sense?
You're welcome! The risk is that the vertical one ends up being too high, in a similar fashion to what's explained here: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html
Hey dear! It usually ends up being too high, cf this video ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html. Hence I don't recommend it unless the monitor is really a small one, or unless you have a super long torso :)
Hi. Thank you for all your videos! What do you think about vertical 2 monitors setup? When is one monitor in the optimal position and the second higher (like 1+4 at 9:00 in the video). You can do it with some monitor arms. Is it better than one of the monitors on the side?
You're most welcome!! If you stack 2 screens vertically, the top one NEEDS to be below eye level: neck extension is worse than neck rotation. In practice, I have never seen it work: either the top one is too high, or the lowest one is too low (see this video: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html). Makes sense?
@@OlivierGirard Okay, thanks. I was so afraid of asymmetry that I thought this solution would be better. After your answer and this video, I'm thinking much more about an ultra-wide monitor
It depends a lot what you do with it... if you work within the visual field angle, and keep the sides of the monitor for idle windows (spotify, etc.), why not :) !
@@OlivierGirardI wonder why, is it because most tools are designed with right hand in mind or are you just trained in using your right hand for those tools? I noticed you use an ergo mouse which is designed with right hand in mind
The top of my screen is actually only 10° below my line of sight, which is what's needed to reduce the strain in the upper traps. Indeed, it looks like much more on the videos but that's due to the angle of the camera
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The best and most comprehensive video on the topic of setting up and working with multiple monitors. Most other videos on this topic are made by people who have never worked with such setups and clearly don't have any context whatsoever about what they are dealing with. Hence they end up dishing out the usual advise that everyone already knows these days. But Oliver has clearly taken extraordinary pains to put himself in the situation, understood the setting intimately and studied the reasons behind why people use such setups. Then he seems to have spent days on understanding the subtle differences between using different numbers, sizes and combinations of displays before even beginning to offer advise. Then he has figured out the best possible ways of dealing with the stress that various combinations can cause and only then has he come up with meaningful and worthwhile advise on the topic. Kudos to Oliver for his intelligence and the genuine interest in understanding the problem he is solving. Please keep up the good work!!
Thank you, after pandemic and remote work started, Iam using your videos as my main guide to setup all parts of my workspace. Now I feel much better after working day.
That's so great to hear!! Many followers are giving me a similar feedback, which gives me a lot of energy to keep posting :)
Great explanation, the dominant eye aspect really helped. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the Video! I use two Screens for video editing and it started to hurt. Now i understand why 👍👍
Here’s a simple dominant eye test to determine which eye is your preferred eye:
Extend your arms out in front of you and create a triangular opening between your thumbs and forefingers by placing your hands together at a 45-degree angle .
With both eyes open, center this triangular opening on a distant object - such as a wall clock or door knob.
Close your left eye.
If the object stays centered, your right eye (the one that’s open) is your dominant eye. If the object is no longer framed by your hands, your left eye is your dominant eye.
Yep, that works too :) !!
That is fun!
Thank you. Very informative and helpful...
9:15 great advice! I will try it out!
Very interesting and clever ... 👌
Helpful thanks
You are A blessing!
Very helpful, thank you. Any thoughts on vertical screens? Some advocate a horisontal main screen and a secondary (or even tertiary) screen rotated vertically. Arguably the left-right rotation of the neck would be less since screens are typically rectangular. If you avoid placing the vertical screens above eye-level, is it a feasible solution?
Wouldn't it make sense to have a screen on the non-dominant eye side so to train it? Also, is it always bad if by the means of the setup we create a need to move around instead of seating still?
The idea of training your eyes isn't bad per se. It's just that you can't train it for 8 hours a day. So once in a while, why not... but when you work, just work (and take breaks!!) 😅
What should the angle between the main monitor and the side monitors in a three monitor configuration?
Also, why should the monitor be se low (i.e. below the line of view)? How do we find the perfect height of the monitor for us?
Difficult quesiton reg. the angle. What I would do is a bit different: I would take a line perpendicular to the screen, starting in the middle of the screen. For each screen, this line should land onto your nose...
Reg. height, here is your answer: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html
@@OlivierGirard Thank you so much!
How about an ultrawide monitor :)
I think I mention that in the video... I find it a better solution than 2 screens: it can be used as a single screen most of the time, and as a double screen when you really need one. It grants increased flexibility, in a way. Without being more expensive anymore. Makes sense 😀?
@@OlivierGirardIt makes sense it could be a more flexible solution. But from an ergonomic standpoint, are there reasons to avoid two monitors and choose an ultrawide instead?
@@manuelmungenast4121 don't think that I want to play smart ass... but flexibility is precisely the ergonomic standpoint that would make me choose an ultrawide monitor: depending on my activity, I could choose the optimal placement of the windows. So over the day, the load on my neck would be reduced, even if some times I would have been working in a "2 screen configuration". Do you see what I mean?
Question for triple setup . Would you preffer 60° of angle between the monitors to create basically a full arc or less, eg. 40°? With 32" displays the latter seems to require less neck but more body movement in my case.
It's a super great question my friend... this depends indeed on the width of your monitors. Your goal is to try and draw a circle with your eyes as the centre. Hence (if I go back to thinking like an engineer😂), I would
- adjust the viewing distance to the middle of the central monitor
- reproduce the same distance with the centres of the side monitors,
- harmonize the viewing distance between left and right extremities of the side monitors, i.e. rotate them around their middle until you minimize the variance of the viewing distance across the total width of your screens...
Makes sense?
Thankyou , i have a question about dual monitors , what about the other monitor is vertical?
You're welcome! The risk is that the vertical one ends up being too high, in a similar fashion to what's explained here: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html
Hey Olivier, do you think it can be ok to display monitor vertically? Also known as portrait mode?
Hey dear! It usually ends up being too high, cf this video ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html. Hence I don't recommend it unless the monitor is really a small one, or unless you have a super long torso :)
Hi. Thank you for all your videos!
What do you think about vertical 2 monitors setup? When is one monitor in the optimal position and the second higher (like 1+4 at 9:00 in the video). You can do it with some monitor arms. Is it better than one of the monitors on the side?
You're most welcome!!
If you stack 2 screens vertically, the top one NEEDS to be below eye level: neck extension is worse than neck rotation. In practice, I have never seen it work: either the top one is too high, or the lowest one is too low (see this video: ruclips.net/video/Ag1QQ_7v3wQ/видео.html). Makes sense?
@@OlivierGirard Okay, thanks. I was so afraid of asymmetry that I thought this solution would be better.
After your answer and this video, I'm thinking much more about an ultra-wide monitor
@@9PoLkovNik9 that's a way better idea indeed... if one day I change my screen, I think I'll do the same :)
I was about to buy a 49" 32:9 screen but now i will overthink that.
It depends a lot what you do with it... if you work within the visual field angle, and keep the sides of the monitor for idle windows (spotify, etc.), why not :) !
Are you left hand dominant?
I am :) But you see that my mouse is on the right, I play tennis with right and I use scissors with right too...
@@OlivierGirardI wonder why, is it because most tools are designed with right hand in mind or are you just trained in using your right hand for those tools? I noticed you use an ergo mouse which is designed with right hand in mind
Everyone telling to set monitor below eye level but that cause pain in my neck somehow.
I usually see this in people who have a tendency to slump (= mid back goes round): do you recognize this in yourself?
interesting that the monitor is much lower than your eye level. most ergo tips would have your eye level at the top of the screen.
The top of my screen is actually only 10° below my line of sight, which is what's needed to reduce the strain in the upper traps. Indeed, it looks like much more on the videos but that's due to the angle of the camera