Connecting A Second Monitor To Your PC

Connecting a second monitor to your PC is very worthwhile from a photographic post-processing perspective. It allows you, for example, to keep your Photoshop toolbar and other menus on one screen while filling the other screen with the image you are working on. And aside from photography, you can use one screen for, say, an application like Tweetdeck and the other for your web browsing. It really is a very versatile option to have available.

I was until recently under the impression that a second monitor connection would require the installation of a new video card. That is something well outside my expertise and so I didn't pursue the matter any further. However, purely by chance, I came across an article last week which indicated that all that was required was the installation of an adapter.

If you have a PC manufactured in the last 6 years or so it will almost certainly have an unused DVI port at the back. This is what it looks like:

Assuming you have a spare second monitor, the VGA connector on it will look like this:

That will not fit into the DVI port so you will need a VGA to DVI adaptor. It will look like this:

I got mine at Maplins, Blackpool Shopping Centre, Cork. The manufacturer is Nikkai and the part code is L53BT. It cost €13.89.

Connecting it is simplicity itself. Once you've done that, power up the spare monitor and then follow the instructions for activating the second monitor set-up from this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/hwandprograms/monitors.mspx       

This is a shot of my own set-up with the smaller spare monitor containing Canon's DPP Raw Processing software's control menus while the main screen has the uncluttered image.

It makes for a very productive and versatile work environment and it requires no computer hardware expertise. All you need is a spare monitor and a readily available cheap adaptor.