Haven't been able to get to the blog though I've collected several items.But I'll be doing one on an easy way to maximize viewing space on your computers (mostly PC, alas) and even rotate the screen on a vertically shorter netbook, when using a web browser.
Until then, the basic, easiest tip, for times when you're using your web browser, is to temporarily get rid of toolbars and status line:
Press function key F11
That toggles off the toolbars.
And to get back the toolbars, you press F11 again.
To get even more space, check your Options or Preferences in your browser.
On Firefox, it's Top Menu TOOLS/Options/Tabs/
And when you're there, UNclick "Always show the tab_bar"
This way, you won't need to see the Tabs while viewing an image or text you want to concentrate on, including any newspaper.
The best thing for me is that you can arrow up while viewing a picture or text and the top toolbars will reappear so that you can do something with them if you want. As you arrow back down, they'll disappear again.
Again, to get back your toolbars, just press function key F11 again.
If anyone knows how this is done on the Mac, let me know. Before OS X or 10 there was a way but it was removed, for at least a couple of years.
This problem has been even worse by the extremely unfortunate industry trend towards so-called "widescreen" displays, where vertical pixels have been sacrificed in favor of horizontal. This is exactly wrong for reading large quantities of text. It's no accident that books (and the Kindle) are made in a portrait format.
ReplyDeleteI think the iPad crowd will concentrate on video/film content. Most of them don't seem that bent on reading ('longform').
ReplyDeleteI've been seeing complaints that the iPad screen is not widescreen the way "it ought to be" and complaining about the black bars that will result with 'letterboxing'...
Since I have the Samsung 10.2" netbook (wonderful matte screen and large, quality keyboard) and am into photos, which aren't usually wide-screen I too do want the screen to be higher, which is why I've looked for ways to get no distractions at top or bottom w/o just maximizing -- almost like a borderless screen.
Oh, the reason I will do a blog entry on maximum screen space, is just what you said about vertical orientation for reading. There are tools to rotate a laptop or netbook screen and you could hold it like the similarly heavy Entourage Edge. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe keypad is also affected then and aligned with the rotation. Mine is 2.7 lbs and I'd not choose it for e-book reading except for brief periods on the Kindle for PC or Adobe / B&N / Mobipocket readers.