Experienced users recommend using similarly sized monitors and resolution settings. One company with experience is Quantum Data, which makes equipment for testing audio and video products. Quantum Data operates in a paperless environment, and 84 percent of its workers have more than one display, said Mark Stockfisch, the company's chief technology officer. Fourteen percent have three monitors.

Almost all of the monitors used at the company are 19-in. LCD devices. If an employee has monitors with different resolutions, Stockfisch recommends using the one with the highest resolution for writing, browsing and e-mail. That kind of work is usually done on the right screen, unless a user is left-handed, he said. For resolutions higher than 1280x1024 pixels, Stockfisch suggests using a Digital Video Interface connection instead of an analog connection for the best display quality.

Although adoption of multiple monitors may be ad hoc in most workplaces, that hasn't been the case at The Durkin Agency. When the insurance agency moved to electronic documents, it also installed multiple monitors on desktops to make it easier for employees at its offices to open documents and work on applications in tandem. The LCD screens are connected to monitor arms made by WorkRite Ergonomics that hold them above the desks of workers.

Eileen Durkin, who heads the insurance agency, estimates that dual monitors have helped increased employee productivity by 10 percent. "People who weren't organized are organized now," she said.

Instead of installing multiple screens, some people are scaling up to jumbo-sized monitors. Craig Lalley, an independent Cobol programmer in Illinois, U.S., uses a 30-in. monitor for work and home computing. Lalley said the monitor was "overwhelming at first, in that your eyes have to move to take it all in." He added that for an application like Microsoft's Flight Simulator X, the monitor "looks like being in a life-sized cockpit."

Big monitors have big prices, though. Lalley said he paid about US$1,100 for his Dell monitor and also spent another US$700 to upgrade his video card to support the monitor's 2560x1600 display.