Developing for multiple monitors

Question

We are currently working on a new version of our main application. one thing that I really wish to work on is providing support for multiple monitors. Increasingly, our target users are adding second screens to their desktops and I think our product could leverage this extra space to improve user performance.

Our application is a financial package that supports leasing and fleet companies - a very specialised market. That being said, I am sure that many people with multiple monitors have a favourite bit of software that they think would be improved if it supported those extra screens better.

I'm looking for some opinions on those niggles that you have with current software, and how you think they could be improved to support multi-monitor setups. My aim is to then review these and decide how I can implement them and, hopefully, provide an even better environment for my users.

Answer 1

Few random tips:

• If multiple windows can be open at one time, allow users to have them on separate screens. Seems obvious, but some very popular apps (e.g. Visual Studio) fail miserably at this.
• Remember the position of the last opened window, and open new windows on the same screen as before. However, sometimes users switch between multiple and single-display (e.g. docking a laptop with an external CRT), so watch cover this case as well.
• Consider how your particular users work, and how having two maximized windows simultaneously might help. Often, there is a (fairly passive) window for reference (e.g. a web browser/help) and an active window for data entry (e.g. editor/database) that users switch between.
• Do not put toolboxes/toolbars on a different window than objects they operate on (it's inconvenient to move the mouse so far).