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Adam Kalsey

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

User Experience

Laptop usability

22 Jan 2003

I use my laptop with an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor when I’m at my desk. The monitor is a 21" beast, but the laptop screen is only about 15". When I’m using the monitor, I like to have my screen resolution set higher than when I’m using the laptop on its own.

The sequence I follow each time I connect or disconnect the laptop from the monitor is to hit a hotkey combination that tells the laptop to use the external monitor, then open up my display properties and set the resolution.

Why should I have to go through this? The laptop can obviously detect whether I have a monitor connected, because if I try and switch to external video and there’s nothing connected, the laptop screen stays on. I should be able to set the laptop up so that if I connect something to the VGA port, the system switches from LCD to monitor and changes my resolution for me.

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