Monitor

[Virtue]

I am just starting to use a computer for the first time, and temporarily using my husband's computer which has a square monitor. He is setting me up with a computer, and I have a question about the monitor. Will I be better off with a square monitor or one of the new wide ones? I expect to use e-mail and surf the net, and don't expect to play games or watch movies on the monitor.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have for me.

[jason]

Well from what I can see companies are not producing the standard size 4.3 ratio monitors anymore, they are producing wide screens. The wide screen is very nice but it must be configured correctly. Make sure you adjust the PCs resolution to the highest resolution the monitor will except which will produce the best picture. If you go with to low of a resolution your picture will appear horrendously stretched.

[ABE]

I have used a 19" high resolution monitor (4:3 ratio) for over a year and liked it a lot. Now I have a 21.5" widescreen monitor (1920 x 1080 HD) and find that it takes a lot of getting used to. Both monitors were set up properly from the box and no changes were necessary to the settings. As Jason mentioned there is some set-up required with the computer to get the correct resolution.

My e-mail expands the picture to fit my screen, but the lettering is very small and I cannot increase the size, except when actually composing. The clarity of small characters is excellent with the HD so I would not want a lower definition monitor.

On the internet there is a wide variety of site capabilities. Some sites (majority for me) send a 4:3 ratio image that results in small characters being displayed on my screen. Some sites allow the image to be expanded to the 16:9 ratio for my widescreen monitor, but the result is extremely small characters. Then there are a small number of sites that have very good software that seems to know what your monitor is and sends exactly the right image for display. These sites display an image that is perfectly sized for display on a 4:3 monitor or a 16:9 monitor. The characters are the same size in both formats and the experience with my widescreen is fabulous.

My desktop image was suited to a 4:3 monitor and got stretched to fit my 16:9 monitor and the look is terrible. I changed to an Autumn scene with a road flanked by trees and the stretch version is just as good as with the 4:3 monitor.

On balance, I like the widescreen monitor better but I needed magnifying lenses for my glasses to see the small text.

[Virtue]

Thanks for the help.

[jason]

Hi ABE, I understand where your coming from. Since wide screen monitors are becoming maintream you will likely see web pages that scale to your monitors dimensions becoming more frequent.

Until then theres a few things you can do to increase your font size. You mentioned your outlook being a problem. In outlook 2007 and later, when you open a message, click on other actions, zoom and select say 200%. Outlook 2000-2003 when you open a message you can select view, text size and specify a larger size. For internet browsing in Internet Explorer go to view, text size and select Largest see http://www.microsoft.com/enable/trainin ... btext.aspx for more information.