Making the Most of a Cinema Display

[RainofTerra]

Hello,
I have the 27" cinema display running as the solo monitor for my 11" MacBook Air. I want to make more efficient use of the amount of screen real estate this gives me, but I'm finding it tough to strike a balance between window size and position. I don't just want bigger browser windows, but attempting to arrange them in "tiles" hasn't really worked out for me either. So I'm wondering if anyone else has a good system for making use of this space. My open windows right now are Adium, the Adium IM window, a chrome window, a safari window, x-chat, tweetdeck, Unison and Omnifocus. I know I could use spaces but I've always found virtual desktops clunky - does anyone use them to good affect?

Thanks!

 

[orangeblue]

Cinch is a good program if you at least want the Windows 7 style window dragging and resizing.

 

[illuminate]

I wasn't a fan of virtual desktops (spaces) but it's come in handy. I have my mail and downloads on one, and then everything else on another. You should look into something like that.

I just have a 15in mbp, but here is what my screen looks like (spaces view)

http://jspalding.udderweb.com/screenshots/spaces.png

 

[milimetersquared]

Check out Divvy. It offers an easy and dynamic system for moving around and arranging windows.
Might consider adding Afloat to layer, say, your Adium contacts over other, more necessary windows.

 

[RainofTerra]

Ok, Divvy was perfect - thanks for the pointer. I am also going to try using spaces, just a matter of getting used to it (and getting used to it not being there at work on my Windows workstation, though at work I have multiple displays)

 

[ryken]

Spaces is my favorite.

To make it less "clunky," I use a magic mouse plus Better Touch Tool to make a three finger click activate spaces.

Also, are you using expose? I find I rarely need to have more than two windows readable at once. Expose is nice to quickly find stuff.