Monitors and mice

[armb]

Having two monitors at work is definitely useful, but I do find my shoulder aching more often.
Must learn to use keyboard shortcuts more often, and/or try the "vertical mouse" a colleague has, or a trackball.
I suspect there's something that could be done to improve desk layout/chair position too, but I'm not sure what.
(I'm running Windows, at least for the main desktop and some VMs.)

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Why does having two monmitors cause your shoulder to ache more? Is it the bigger movement needed to get from one to the other? I have three monitors (the laptop screen, a monitor on its docking station, and a Linux monitor, all connected using Synergy) with no trouble, but I only have a limited space for the mouse so I just pick it up and move it to get the range.

I prefer trackballs, but it seems that they are getting rare. The only one I've really found useful (as in having enough buttons plus a scroll wheel) is the MS Trackball Explorer, with 4 large buttons (and a clickable scrollwheel; I disable the click because it's too easy to do by accident). Unfortunately it's no longer made (Amazon still have a page for it but say "we don't know when or if it will be back in stock" -- I gather from the MS page that it's not expected).

[armb.livejournal.com]

> Why does having two monmitors cause your shoulder to ache more? Is it the bigger movement needed to get from one to the other?

That's my suspicion. It might be completely unrelated.