Displaying More on Your Monitor

When you purchase a computer monitor, one of the things you consider is its size, or display area, which is measured like a television screen: diagonally in inches. More important than the physical size, though, is the screen resolution it supports, which is measured in pixels and is expressed as the number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high. Pixels are the individual dots that make up the picture displayed on your screen. Each pixel displays one color; depending on your screen resolution, the images you see on screen might consist of 500,000 to 1,000,000 individual dots of color.

When personal computers first became popular, most computer monitors were capable of displaying only 640 pixels horizontally and 480 pixels vertically (a screen resolution of 640x480). Now most display at 800 x 600 pixels and 1024x768 pixels, and some can display at 2048x1536 pixels (or perhaps by the time this book is published, even higher). In effect, as the screen resolution increases, the size of each pixel decreases, and more information can be shown in the same display area. The graphics in this book were captured on a monitor set to a screen resolution of 1024x768.

Most computer users have a choice of at least two different screen resolutions, but you might have many more choices. Some people prefer to work at 800x600 because everything on their screen appears larger; others prefer to fit more information on their screen with a 1024x768 (or higher) display. Recent statistics indicate that approximately 79 percent of Internet users have their screen resolution set to 1024x768 or greaterup from 60 percent in 2004 and 42 percent in 2001.

Many mobile PCs have widescreen displays, intended to improve the experience of viewing movies on the computer by displaying them at the correct aspect ratio. You might find that your computer offers screen resolutions designed specifically for widescreen displays.

In this exercise, you will change your screen resolution to the maximum and minimum sizes supported by your computer. There are no practice files for this exercise.

1.	In the Control Panel window, click Appearance and Personalization, and then click Personalization. Tip You can open the Personalization window directly by right-clicking the Windows Vista desktop and then clicking Personalize.
2.	In the Personalization window, click Display Settings. The Display Settings dialog box opens.
3.	If you have more than one monitor installed, select the monitor you want to change. Then drag the Resolution slider all the way to the left to switch to the minimum resolution. Tip You can easily tell which monitor is which by clicking the Identify Monitors button. A large number corresponding to the icons in the preview pane flashes on each monitor. The change is reflected in the preview area, but not on your screen.
4.	In the Display Settings dialog box, click Apply. Then in the Display Settings message box that appears, click Yes. Tip You have 15 seconds to decide whether to retain the changed resolution. If you click Yes, the resolution is retained; if you click No or don't click either button, the resolution returns to its previous setting. Your display changes to the lowest resolution supported by your system. Unless your monitor was already set to the minimum resolution, everything shown on the screenthe taskbar, Personalization window, Display Settings dialog box, and any other open windows and dialog boxesappears much larger. [View full size image]
5.	In the Display Settings dialog box, click the slider bar above the right-most resolution marker to change to the maximum resolution supported by the selected monitor. You can either drag the slider to a marker or click above the marker you want.
6.	Click Apply, and then in the Display Settings message box, click Yes. Your screen resolution changes to the maximum supported by your system. [View full size image]
7.	Experiment with the available screen resolutions. Apply the one you like best, and then in the Display Settings window, click OK.