Dual-Display setup

[Pupalaikis]

A while back, someone brought up this issue about ActivInspire and dual-monitor setups. I am in the same boat, having the Activboard hooked up to the second display port on my computer in my classroom.

Has this been resolved, or should I continue using ActivStudio?

[keltorsori]

I believe I was the one who brought it up. I was told it would be addressed for the release. IT HAS NOT. As much as I'd like to be using Inspire, I'll be sticking to Studio until this is addressed. I cannot use this without multiple monitor support.

Please address this! Pretty please?

[Pupalaikis]

I found the answer to my question this morning... ... and I would like also ask that this be fixed.

In ActivStudio, I could assign the flipchart to monitor 2. But in Inspire,I have to actively move everything over to the second monitor (ActivBoard) from the first monitor (Desktop monitor). THis has now even spread to some of the tools (for instance, the clock).

After today, I too will be returning to using ActivStudio; pity though, the students really like the way Inspire looks.

[kjhanafin]

This is a must-have feature for me also. Please put support for multiple monitors in the next release - without it I feel like I'm going backwards.

If you haven't tried using dual monitors with AS, I recommend giving it a try. It allows me to perform teacher tasks without the students seeing... very nice!

Karl

[bobott]

Just curious...what do you do with multiple monitors???

[Pupalaikis]

My video card has dual outputs. One output runs to the monitor on my desktop. From there, you can have your mail client and gradebook program open. The Activboard is hooked up to the second output. This way, you do not have the students looking at the gradebook or your email.

The other computers on my campus only have a single video out. We had to use a video splitter to enable the monitor and the Activboard to be connected. The drawback is that if the teacher pulls up the gradebook on his or her desktop with the LCD projector on the Activboard running, then the whole class is treated to seeing all the entries in the gradebook.

[davidlloyd]

The response below from our R$D departnment was on another thread:

"Just to clarify. Yes, Inspire currently does not offer the multiple monitor settings that are in Activstudio.

However, it is still possible to use ActivInspire on either monitor in a dual monitor setup.

If your Activboard is configured to use the Primary monitor, Inspire will open up on the Activboard. If the Activboard is configured to use the Secondary monitor, you need to drag Inspire onto the second monitor after loading it."

Hope it helps.

[kjhanafin]

Yes it works on the secondary monitor -- sort of. You need to drag a bunch of other things over also... dashboard, clock, keyboard, tickertape, calculator, etc... kind of a major pain. Also if you try to use Fullscreen, it jumps back to the primary monitor.

I hope that you implement dual monitors as well in Inspire as you did in Studio!

Thanks!
Karl

[stewartw]

Hello. Thanks for your valued feedback.
Support for multi-monitor setups will be available in a near-future release of Inspire.

[mcox567]

I hope that's still the plan, Stewart! The dual display support is the one thing I miss from switching to Inspire from Studio. I would love to have the ability again to display a flipchart on one monitor while editing on a second one - I teach 3 different grade levels, so I'm constantly working on charts for the other grades while one grade is doing their work - as it is now, I have to freeze the display so that I can drag Inspire back to my desktop to edit, and that kind of defeats the nature of flipcharts, IMO.

[paintejf]

Yes, this needs to be addressed.

Here is how many of my teachers used that feature. Grade book and attendance open on primary monitor. Activstudio open on extended desktop. It is a must have feature to be able to dedicate AI to a secondary monitor. This allows the teacher to accomplish administrative tasks AND utilize the board simultaneously.

The solution of dragging things over is a work around IMHO. It breaks the rhythm of a class to have to constantly walk back to the workstation and move things over to the extended desktop.

This is a big deal for my site. I have three teachers highly skilled in the use of this equipment who have refused the upgrade solely due to the absence of this feature. I cannot stress how important it is for this feature to be re-implemented.

[jayendra]

I have another issue to add.

When you have dual display with a macbook (non mirrored) and you change the resolution of the board, you can't calibrate to the boards resolution. So when you move your pen its on the resolution of the macbook and totally not in the right place most of the time.

A work around is to make them both the same resolution and calibrate but the problem is my macbook can't get the higher resolutions of the board which I want.

grrrrrrrrr.

Also annoyed at the initial posters problems as well.

[e-innovate]

Another consideration -- when developing flipcharts, I have a second monitor attached to my laptop and I would like to have multiple flipchart windows viewable on the two screens, so that I can easily copy pages and page elements from one window to the other without having to select them from the tabs at the top of the screen. It gives me the ability to do side-by-side comparisons of various pages and design formats.

PLEASE bring this feature into the next update!

Thank you.