Use the Desktop
A surprising number of people work with their program windows at full expansion, even though computer monitors are getting wider and wider. This might have made sense when screens were small and you needed all of the room just to frame a sensible document. And it can still make sense if you’re easily distracted and need to throw a blanket over everything other than what you’re currently working on.
But at other times and for other folks, the desktop can be a great tool, rather than a large expanse of wasted space. You can have more than one document window open and visible to be compared, or you can work from an open browser window to an open Word document window. You can store important shortcuts on the desktop and even organize them into useful clusters or patterns. It’s a place for digital sticky notes, patches of frequently used text, and, of course, motivational photos of the reasons you’re working as hard as you are.
How do you use your desktop?
I often use my desktop as a TO DO list. A folder for each outstanding project on my desktop helps keeps all those balls in the air top of mind
As my own screens are getting smaller and smaller (as I become more mobile), I still tend to open them to full. I find for some reason my font size is also getting bigger (even with the progressive lenses), which takes up a bit more space too.
At times when I work with more than one application at a time, I may have two windows open together thereby splitting the screen either vertically or horizontally. I’m hoping to add another monitor, though, in my office so that when I am doing detailed work in a number of applications I can have more space to work.