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Mark Jerde 2005-04-10 02:40
Sorry if these suggestions have been covered before. I didn't read all the previous messages. ;-)
I recently spent quite a long time with UltraMon setting up a new computer. The computer came with a NVIDIA dual monitor card and I plugged in my 8-monitor Colorgraphic card too. I currently have 6 connected monitors and after I build a shelf I'll have 8. Life is good. ;-) The suggestions below would have made setting up the computer easier.
1. Please make the Display Settings dialog box sizeable, with the monitor display region growing in size as the dialog box increases in size. In the current size it is impossible to tell from the display the number of the disconnected monitors. The text is far too small.
2. On the Display Settings dialog box, when "identify monitors" is checked the numbers show up large, in the middle of each monitor, on top of everything else. When clicking "Apply" the confirmation dialog box is obscured by the on top monitor id number and has to be moved. This isn't a big deal for one or two changes but it became annoying with as many things as I was doing. I suggest a smaller number in the upper-left or upper-right corner would be preferrable.
3. Let me assign, or perhaps auto-assign, an additional "by card" numbering sequence. This would help a great deal figuring out which cable to connect to which monitor. For example my system has two cards. Let's say "A" is the NVIDIA and "B" is the Colorgraphic Xentera. For some reason "A" is monitors 1 and 10 and "B" is monitors 2-9. The Xentera has 4 "primary" and 4 "secondary" ports and it makes sense to connect to the primary first. The primary ports are 1, 3, 5, and 7. The secondary are the even number ports. But because of "A" grabbing 1 and 10 the Xentera is "off by one." It shouldn't have been as difficult as it was for me to do the arithmetic but I didn't get it right the first time. ;-) I suggest "identify monitors" show in the upper left hand corner of each monitor this information for my system.
- 1:A1
- 2:B1
- 3:B2
- 4:B3
- 5:B4
- 6:B5
- 7:B6
- 8:B7
- 9:B8
- 10:A2
That is, show the "card and port" information as well as the monitor number.
Thanks for a great product!
-- Mark
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Mark Jerde 2005-04-10 02:47
P.S. I just thought of this.
Suggestion 4 is a combination of 1 and 3. As the "Display Settings" dialog box increases in size, show the "Monitor Number":"Card & Port" when the longer string will fit.
-- Mark
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Christian Studer 2005-04-10 06:51
Thanks for your suggestions, will be considered for UltraMon 3.
Instead of a resizable dialog, would it also have been useful if you could zoom into the monitor layout, and scroll it if necessary?
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Mark Jerde 2005-04-11 21:46
"Instead of a resizable dialog, would it also have been useful if you could zoom into the monitor layout, and scroll it if necessary?"
Yes that would be useful. (I understand that is probably easier to implement. ) But since the UntraMon users by definition have lots of screen real estate how about having several different sized "Display Settings" dialog boxes? That is, on the tray icon right-click menu change:
Display Settings...
Display Profiles -->
Mirroring -->
etc.
To:
Display Settings -->
Display Profiles -->
Mirroring -->
etc.
The Display Settings submenu could have these entries:
Standard Size
640x480
1024x768
1600x1200
With good OOP it shouldn't be that hard to have the different dialog boxes share the same code.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I just thought of something else that would be helpful. My 6 monitor setup has different sizes and resolutions. Getting the alignment right was a tedious process of dragging the Display Settings dialog box from monitor to monitor to check the alignment, making "Position:" changes, clicking "Apply" and checking again for both horizontal and vertical alignment.
What if below the "identify monitors" checkbox there was a "display grid" checkbox? When this box is checked UltraMon would draw some horizontal and vertical lines across all monitors. I suspect 10 pixel width lines would work well, spaced every 500 pixels or so (perhaps depending on the resolution of the primary monitor.) It might also be helpful if the lines varied in style (dotted, solid, dashed) and/or color. This would give a visual display of the same thing I drag the Display Settings dialog box to determine -- the horizontal and vertical alignment of the monitors.
In concert with this, it would be cool if the arrow keys did "live nudging and Auto-Apply" in the monitor panel of the Display Settings dialog box. For example:
Arrow Keys: Select the next monitor in the indicated direction.
Arrow Keys: Move the selected monitor 1 pixel in the indicated direction. When the key is released, if the Auto Apply checkbox is checked, Apply the change.
Arrow Keys: Move the selected monitor 10 pixel in the indicated direction. When the key is released, if the Auto Apply checkbox is checked, Apply the change.
Arrow Keys: Move ... 20 pixels ...
... 100 pixels ...
Thoughts?
-- Mark
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Mark Jerde 2005-04-11 21:53
Posting ate the "grins" and "smiles" in my post. The sentence "With good OOP" was grinned (so I didn't sound like a high-and-mighty jerk). Is there a "How To Post" article somewhere?
Thanks.
-- Mark
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Mark Jerde 2005-04-11 21:59
Arrgh! It also ate other characters. HTML is not my forte. Let me try again replacing the greater-than and less-than symbols with parens:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In concert with this, it would be cool if the arrow keys did "live nudging and Auto-Apply" in the monitor panel of the Display Settings dialog box. For example:
Arrow Keys: Select the next monitor in the indicated direction.
(Shift)Arrow Keys: Move the selected monitor 1 pixel in the indicated direction. When the (Shift) key is released, if the Auto Apply checkbox is checked, Apply the change.
(Ctrl)Arrow Keys: Move the selected monitor 10 pixel in the indicated direction. When the (Shift) key is released, if the Auto Apply checkbox is checked, Apply the change.
(Ctrl)(Shift)Arrow Keys: Move ... 20 pixels ...
(Ctrl)(Shift)(Alt) ... 100 pixels ...
-=-=-=-=-=-
Let's see if this works... (grin)
-- Mark
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