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Tech: help with new-fangled screen
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Subject: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 12 Feb 08 - 10:52 AM My nice little monitor that I got free from a neighbor was dying, and Himself announced that he wanted a fancy high definition screen. It's rectangular. One result is that when I look at the Forum page, the number of posts in a thread is 11 inches away from the title of the thread. That is a long way to scan, especially for someone like me, who has bad eyes. Another result is that sentences in a document stretch all the way across the screen. They don't begin to approximate the 8.5 by 11 size of an actual document. Any ideas on how to return my screen to a square format? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,Jon Date: 12 Feb 08 - 10:59 AM I'm assuming the monitor is set up correctly. For your web browser, why not just resize it to dimensions that suit you? It does not need to occupy the full screen width. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Simon G Date: 12 Feb 08 - 11:03 AM THe idea is you run your web browser in a window, not in full screen mode. Click the restore down button with two overlapping squares in it next to the white X on a red background. Then you can point at the vertical edge of the browser window and get a <-> cursor. left click on the mouse and drag until the browser is the width you want and release the left button. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Feb 08 - 11:34 AM With a screen like that you can open several browser windows and work back and forth easily. I didn't find an image in Google to work for this illustration, so I did a couple of screen shots and have posted them to Photobucket for a little while. When you have your browser open on the entire monitor screen you see this corner icon. To reduce your browser window, click on the little image of two overlapping windows next to the red x. If you have always viewed your browser at full-size, it won't appear any different, so you need to take your mouse pointer to one of the blue-edged corners and click and drag the corner. When your mouse is over the correct part of the edge it will turn into a little double-ended arrow. (The corner has a little pattern of dots that you can grab, but it works on any corner.) Drag the browser window to a smaller size and let go of the mouse. As you use your browser in this smaller size your computer will remember that and open the browser in your preferred size. You may need to do this a couple of times. To reposition the entire browser window within the monitor area, click on the top blue bar so it is the active window, then click the left mouse button and hold it while you drag the box to where you want it. When you have a browser open on part of the monitor surface area, you see this icon. If the occasion arises when you want to go back to the full screen view, simply click on the single box (next to the red x). The single line that appears in both of those illustrations allows you to completely reduce the browser to the background (you'll still see the placeholder for it on the bottom of the screen in the task bar). When I work I typically have three or four browser windows open at a time, as well as the various other programs I'm using, so I rely on the task bar to keep track of these. If you have questions, PM me and I'll give you a call and will talk you through it. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Feb 08 - 11:36 AM Also, you'll find that if you set a darker background for your desktop that it is easier on your eyes behind those browser windows. Right click your mouse with the arrow over a blank area of the desktop and you'll get a dialog box. You can set a photo or a color or both on your desktop. This may be too much information (you already do this) so I won't do any more screen shots. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 12 Feb 08 - 04:50 PM Thanks, SRS. It didn't work at first, and then something kicked in, the arrows appeared, and I was able to re-size the window. I have already changed the screen so that it has only 80% of its full brightness. (The original factory setting hurt my eyes.) No doubt I will appreciate this new screen more the next time we watch a DVD. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Feb 08 - 08:37 PM Try resetting the background (desktop) so that when you play your DVDs they are as bright and crisp as they can be. Right click your mouse over an empty part of the desktop, and select "Properties." Go into the desktop tab and you'll see "color" on the right hand side. If you make that a dark brown or black, it won't bother your eyes, and your browser windows will display crisp and bright. And when you keep them down to a smaller size, they won't be too bright for viewing. I have a black background and in the center I have a photo of mountains and starlight. It's a very restful background, and my icons (files, programs, etc.) show up in nice contrast where I parked them. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: JohnInKansas Date: 13 Feb 08 - 05:05 AM I'll agree with Stilly about the black background, but I make my desktop picture black, with my "pleasant picture" inset in the lower right corner where it doesn't get covered by any of my 65 or so icons. It makes the picture more pleasing, and keeps the icons readable. If you happen to have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, there is a "color setup" utility included, but it's a separate program in the program folder. The Elements version really only sets gray-scale, but can be a help if your monitor is very far off. Brightness setting for comfortable viewing after you've got a good balance probably depends mostly on how brightly lit you keep the room. The pro advisors recommend a very dark room for photo work, but I'd trip over too many cats if I followed their advice closely. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 13 Feb 08 - 07:04 AM Having used black backgrounds when younger (and found that a harsh contrast was more straining than a gentle one!), I now set my background as a med-darkish blue and have no background piccy - you needed to save resources on Win9x... :-P |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,Jon Date: 13 Feb 08 - 08:15 AM I prefer a light blue background, Pip goes for light green. Peter has a darker one. Guess it's down to the individual. As for Desktops, I had a brief play with Compiz-Fusion recently. Thing's either annoyed me or made me feel dizzy... A video here showing some of the "wonderful" things we Linux users can have for free. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 13 Feb 08 - 09:37 AM We'll try the dark background and see how we like it for movies. John: 65 icons!?! Yours must be a busy life. I bet I could get by with 3: Internet Explorer, Noteworthy Composer, and WordPad. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST,Jon Date: 13 Feb 08 - 10:10 AM I don't like Desktop Icons although my Desktop usually winds up filled with icons from stuff I've downloaded and haven't moved/deleted... For apps, I find the bar at the bottom of the screen better. Usually have at least a file browser, web browser, email, spreadsheet and word processor there. I start the other apps from the main menu but KDE is pretty helpful. The most used apps wind up in the favourites tab (the first tab displayed) and the most recent apps show in the history tab. KDE4 will be the next Desktop for me when OpenSuse 11.0 comes out in June. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 08 - 04:10 PM A couple of Windows back there used to be a bar I anchored to the right side (but it could be put anywhere, or made into a box, etc.) that had a little icon for each program. Very tidy. Now I have to just leave the icons on the desktop because they don't make the bar anymore. I suppose I could make one myself--but it would be a lot of work! SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: JohnInKansas Date: 13 Feb 08 - 06:10 PM Stilly - At least through WinXP it sounds like you're talking about the "Start Bar" - a.k.a. the Task Bar. If you right click on a blank space on the bar you can uncheck the "Lock the Task Bar" and once that's done you can move it to any edge you choose, and can "stretch it" to whatever height/width you like. Icons can be dragged onto it, or you can put a shortcut in the "Start" folder to get an icon there. The icons will be the "tiny" ones, with no text description, but should show the program/file name when you hover on them. If you don't want to move it, it is recommended that you keep the "Lock the Task Bar" setting checked, so that we don't have to remind you how to find it when it gets pushed off screen or otherwise mismangled. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 08 - 09:30 PM No, it was a different one, I think. It went away after Win2000, or maybe WinME. I'll look for an image later. My dinner's getting cold. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: GUEST Date: 13 Feb 08 - 10:36 PM A different one, or an extra one? I really can't remember the Win setups but with KDE, the bar is called a pane and you can had more than one and place them top, right, left, bottom, have them different sizes, have them autohide, etc. The panels themselves can have links/icons to start programs, a main menu, appelets including a task bar (shows what apps are running you can bring one to the front from there, etc), switch desktops, a system tray (where apps might place thier own icons), a clock, etc. etc. It can be customised quite easily. Of course when thinking Linux, things are a little different to Win as people may well select a Desktop of their choice when installing thier distribution even. I choose KDE but someone else also using the same OpenSuse as me might swear by gnome, another xfce, etc. The desktops can even have their own apps btw so instead of say a Windows user having (at least once) Notepad. Someone using the KDE Desktop on Linux would have Kate and a Gnome user, GEdit. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 14 Feb 08 - 07:29 AM JiK... Only 65 icons? How quaint... or are you talking about your age? :-P Now us Power Users feel naked with less than 3 digits... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: JohnInKansas Date: 14 Feb 08 - 10:20 AM Foolestripe - I like to keep the desktop neat. A couple of the icons go to folders with other shortcuts sorted in them. And I do understand that users of obsolete and limited old-fashioned hardware and software need a separate program for each thing they do, so I can see you using three Or does "power user" refer to the frequent smoke from the wornout hardware? Are you still running on steam, or have you switched over to all that "natural gas" you've bragged about having available? John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 15 Feb 08 - 01:01 AM Dear John in Kak'ass... Like you, I supply my own gas... :-P |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Feb 08 - 01:59 AM Leeneia, you may want to shield your eyes from the last couple of posts. They won't help your eye strain and they might strain your patience as they lob virtual verbal ICBMs around the world at each other. . . ;-D |
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Subject: RE: Tech: help with new-fangled screen From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 15 Feb 08 - 03:24 AM :-P |
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