With time, monitors have grown wider and wider to give us more space and more resolution for videos and gaming. Setting up your screen horizontally may come naturally to you—that’s how it’s shown on the box anyway—but it might not be the most efficient option when you’re working.
Changing to a vertical monitor setup is easy to do and can make more efficient use of every single inch of your screen. When you’re using programs like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or looking at traditional scroll-down webpages, there’s only so much a wider screen can do for you. It’ll come to a point when having more room only means more space between columns or a larger grey area between the document you’re working on and the scroll bar on the right.
A vertical monitor will display more condensed versions of your browser, but it’ll allow you to fully fit two windows on your screen instead of one more comfortably. This means that if you use a monitor as your laptop’s second display, you’ll have immediate control over three applications or tabs at the same time.
There are two sets of steps you’ll have to go through to set up a vertical monitor—one involving hardware, and the other involving software.
Let’s start with the first one. If you’re using your monitor with a stand, physically changing the screen orientation into a vertical position should be easy. The exact process will depend on the manufacturer, but some Dell monitors, for example, can be easily rotated into portrait mode, or have some sort of a lock on the back you can press to rotate your screen. Desk mounts are easy too, and even basic ones let you change your display orientation however you want.
[Related: The best vertical monitors of this year]
Once that’s sorted, you’ll have to deal with the software setup. First, make sure your monitor is properly connected and set up to work with your computer. If you don’t know how to do that, PopSci has all the instructions you need. No matter the make of your computer, the monitor you connect will be in a landscape or horizontal position by default—you’ll need to change that.
On PCs running Windows 11, go to the Start menu and click Settings (the cog icon). The menu will automatically open the System options, where you’ll click on the first item on the list: Display. If your monitor is already connected to your machine, you’ll immediately see the Multiple displays menu, where you can configure where the screen is relative to your laptop or other monitors you may be using. If you don’t see this, scroll down to find the Multiple displays menu and click on Detect.
Once your computer recognizes the secondary screen, scroll down to Display orientation and click the drop-down menu on the right to change the default option from Landscape to either Portrait or Portrait (flipped). Choose the second one if you rotated your display counterclockwise. Don’t sweat it if you get it wrong—Windows will give you 15 seconds to undo your changes via a pop-up notification. Just click on Revert and things will immediately go back to normal.
If you’re still using Windows 10, the steps are substantially similar: Start > Settings (cog icon) > System > Display > Orientation.
On Macs, go to the Apple menu, choose System Settings, and then on the sidebar choose Displays. Unlike Windows, there’s no manual way to push a Mac to detect a second screen. This happens automatically, so if you don’t see your monitor in the Displays menu, it’s not connected. Once you see your monitor, select it and at the bottom of the window you’ll find Rotation. Click the drop-down menu to the right and change the default Standard to either 90° or 270°, depending on whether you flipped your display clockwise or counterclockwise.
If you work in a very compartmentalized way and use separate windows for different jobs or accounts, a vertical monitor will be comfortable and help you keep everything just a glance away.
But if you prefer to keep a long row of endless tabs on your browser or need to focus on one thing at a time, a vertical monitor setup may be too stimulating for you. Still, if this is your case, it’s always a good idea to keep your primary screen (be it another monitor or your laptop’s built-in display) locked to a landscape view. That way, whenever you need to concentrate, you can turn off your vertical monitor and pour all of your attention into the task at hand. When you’re finished, you can easily go back to that comfortable bird’s-eye view.
This story has been updated. It was originally published on September 14, 2021.
Vertical monitors are growing in popularity recently as they make a multitude of tasks and activities easier and more comfortable. Vertical monitors are just a great evolution of the dual screen – they take up less space and allow you to see more of the screen simultaneously.
The best part is the uses for the vertical monitor aren’t limited to work-related tasks only. In fact, they are quite versatile for everything from jobs to hobbies! Let's look at what vertical monitors are used for and why it may be time for you to invest in one.
Using Vertical Monitors for Reading
If you need to read through extensive, never-ending documents for work or just need to catch up on e-books for personal productivity or fun, then doing this on a tiny, compact screen is definitely not ideal. If you’re a student and need to go through online textbooks, it's easier to read text on vertical screens due to their orientation.
The portrait orientation allows for increased font size, making it super convenient for you to read through the text. Also, you don’t have to constantly scroll through the screen, which increases productivity! It also shortens sentence line length, so your eyes don't have to move as much. Vertical monitors can reduce eye strain when reading. If you suffer from eye strain and headaches due to extensive hours spent reading on monitors, this can be a game-changer!
Using Vertical Monitors for Coding
Coding projects require you to scroll through thousands of lines of code, which can be time-consuming and frustrating! A vertical monitor shows 82% more text as compared to a traditional horizontal screen. With vertical monitors for coding:
You don’t have to scroll through code as much to read through past work by yourself or other collaborators.
You can quickly meet deadlines more easily with improved productivity.
It makes it easier to understand a project if the code was written by someone else.
You can easily see how different sections of the code interact with each other since more lines are visible on the screen.
It’s great for catching bugs and making sure code is organized properly.
Using Vertical Monitors for Photo & Video Editing
If you’re an editor, you’d know the hassle of having to flip through the files and web pages, which of course, wastes so much time. Moreover, it can also make your work less efficient if you do not have enough screen space to make the most out of the software.
However, switching to a vertical monitor for photo and video editing can surely increase your productivity.
It gives you more space allocated for photos and videos taken in portrait orientation.
You can have a more detailed editing potential for the images.
This is especially helpful when editing content created on and for smartphones.
You can use the top of the screen for editing and the bottom of the screen for file management or watching tutorials.
This can streamline your workflow and increase productivity, and you can easily implement techniques while watching tutorials to learn more effectively!
Using Vertical Monitors for Gaming and Streaming
Vertical monitors have totally made gaming and streaming a lot more fun. You don’t have to constantly juggle between reading chats from friends while playing with them.
Previously, people often had to purchase a separate monitor, but that’d not the case anymore! With vertical monitors for gaming, you don’t have to worry about losing viewers if you do not properly interact with them or losing a game if you can't talk to the other players effectively.
You can enjoy the game and simultaneously monitor chats.
Have the game at the top of the screen and chat or stream open at the bottom of the screen for maximum visibility and less strain.
You can better interact with others to make gaming sessions more fun and keep your viewers happy.
If you want to boost your productivity, then a vertical monitor might just be the perfect addition to your workstation (or play station). Now is the time to work smarter with cutting-edge dual vertical monitors from Mobile Pixels!