The MacAlba

I borrowed an Apple 23 inch Cinema HD screen from another system today and connected it to my new MacBook Pro. I’ve not run a dual monitor system before and wasn’t quite sure how to work with such a setup (and still amn’t). I sat the LCD screen behind the MacBook Pro and configured OSX to have the laptop screen below the Cinema screen in the display preferences menu. This works as you’d expect from a technical perspective - but I don’t really have a feel for how work-day workflow should run.

What do I mean? If I start Microsoft Word, for example, and open a document, the file opens in the laptop screen. That’s OK - I can drag the newly opened word window up onto the Cinema screen. The window is the same size as it was on the laptop’s screen though. I then have to manually increase the window size to enable me to see the entire word document at roughly actual size. I haven’t yet found an “adjust window to actual sizeâ€? command in Word - there may not be one.

I’ve been giving Aperture, Apple’s post-processing tool for photographs, a trial run and have been really impressed by the brightness and clarity of my photographs on the big 23 inch screen. The big plus though, is the ability of Aperture to present me with a fluid, natural workflow. I’m (currently) convinced that this software will, in time, replace my current use of Adobe Photoshop.

I’ll probably end up purchasing a Mac Mini for home use and connecting a 23 inch screen to that.