How to Make a Tiny,Cramped Laptop Screen – Guide
Small screens do not mean minor achievements. Here it is how to do the main tasks on a small screen.
A great monitor can help productivity and posture, but after working on a big screen in home, it’s hard to get things done in a laptop with just 13 inches of screen space (or less). Here are some techniques for squeezing a few more pixels from your screen if your work is looking a little tight on that small screen. ..
Reduce pixel scale
Some laptops use high-resolution panels to make things look sharp, but they don’t actually use all of the pixels. Instead, the laptop uses scaling, increasing the size of icons and text for better readability and using the highest resolution to keep it looking crisp. Depending on your screen, you can get some of these pixels back by rotating the scale.
To change the size of your display in Windows, right-click on the desktop and select “Display Options.” Make sure the correct monitor is selected in the top image and scroll down to “Scale and Layout.” By default, your display can be set to a value of 125% or higher. Lower it a little or reduce it to 100% to use your screen’s native resolution. Experiment to find what works best for you - you may even find that you need to click “Advanced Scale Settings” and use a custom scale value (such as 110%) to find a compromise. ..
On a Mac, you can scale down by going to System Preferences > Displays, select Scaled, and choose a setting that gives you more space. On a Chromebook, go to Settings > Device > Displays and move the Screen Size slider until you find something comfortable.
Zoom out in your browser
If you’re using an old or budget-oriented laptop, you may not have a high resolution screen that allows for enough reduction. In that case, you can achieve a similar effect by zooming out in your browser – after all, you’re probably doing a significant amount of work in Chrome anyway.
In most browsers, you can zoom in or out on a web page by holding the Ctrl key and pressing + or – buttons. This will not reduce things like the browser toolbar, but it can help you make the web page more visible at a time – which can be useful if you want to have two windows open side by side. You can even scale down the operating system and enlarge the web browser to get things right. ..
Hide the taskbar and toolbars
Some people find toolbars to be a nuisance, taking up valuable screen real estate. So, it may be necessary to hide some toolbars temporarily while you work. ..
You can hide the bookmark bar in Chrome by pressing Ctrl + Shift + B. Many office suites, from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, have thick toolbars that you can hide by pressing the right arrow icon. And if your app has a panel coming off the side – again, Google Docs has some share buttons pinned to the right – you can often hide them too. Look for little arrow icons on the panels you want to hide, or rummage through menus like Tools and Window in your supplied apps to see what you can get out of the way.
You can hide the Windows taskbar by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing Settings, and enabling Auto-hide taskbar in Desktop mode.
Capture your Windows efficiently
If you’re having trouble organizing multiple windows in a way that helps you see them all at once, there are a few shortcuts that can help. Windows, macOS, and Chromebooks all have “instant window” features built-in: Just drag a window to the right or left edge of the screen and it will immediately resize to up exactly half the screen. If you drag to the corners, it will take up a quarter of the screen, so you can arrange four windows together. (On Windows, you can also press Win + Right Arrow or Win + Left Arrow to snap without using the mouse.) ..
If you want more control over your Windows desktop, third-party tools like AquaSnap and DisplayFusion can provide many more layouts than Windows built in, plus dozens of customizable shortcuts and other window management features. Both offer limited free versions, although the paid versions are well worth the few dollars for the extra features.
Add more desktops – virtually or physically
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of windows open on your desktop, it might be time to consider using a virtual desktop. Windows, macOS and Chrome OS all have this feature built in, so you can easily switch between multiple workspaces. ..
To open Task View on Windows, open the Start menu and type taskview.
On macOS, Spaces is a feature that allows you to create new virtual spaces. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Up Arrow on the trackpad or by pressing the plus sign on the keyboard. To add a new space to your virtual space, you can open up a new window and swipe between the two desktops with your left or right fingers.
Chrome OS has a feature called tables that lets you launch a windowed environment on your device. You can rename tables, and switch between them by pressing the “Show Windows” key on your Chromebook and choosing “New Table”. You can also move windows between tables. ..
If you have a desktop that’s cluttered and doesn’t let you see all your open windows at once, you can add a second physical monitor to help. A portable monitor like the Lepow Z1 can provide a separate 15-inch screen to work with, or if you already have an iPad, you can plug it in for your laptop and use it as a second monitor.
Final note
This guide will show you how to make a tiny, cramped laptop screen. If you have any questions about this article, please don’t hesitate to ask us. Additionally, please share your love by sharing this article with your friends.
