How to split your laptop or PC screen/monitor in Windows XP

Posted on September 8, 2007 at 10:07 am

Here’s a quick how-to for anyone who wants to split their computer screen monitor into two so that they can view two applications side-by-side. I’ll also be talking about how you can split your screen across dual monitors and split your wallpapers so you can have a different wallpaper on each monitor.

The first how-to is really only useful if you have a widescreen computer display. Otherwise, splitting a normal monitor will not leave enough real estate for the two applications. However, if you have a 15", 17" or higher widescreen display, you can easily split the single monitor. And the best part for splitting on one monitor is that you don’t need any software application, you can do it for free using the built-in options in Windows.

So in order to split your display down the middle either horizontally or vertically, first open two applications, let’s say Word and Excel. Now click on one of the tabs in the Windows Taskbar and then press and hold the CNTRL key on your keyboard. While holding down the CNTRL key, click on the other tab in the Taskbar. They should both be selected now (they should have a darker background than the other tabs).

Now that both applications are selected in the Taskbar, right-click on either one and choose Tile Vertically from the options.

And viola! You should now have Word on one side of the screen and Excel on the other side! If you want them in landscape view rather than portrait view, just choose Tile Horizontally.

You can also split your screen three ways or more by simply selecting more applications in the Taskbar! Pretty easy! So that’s what is involved to split your screen if you have one monitor.

If you have more than one monitor, you can follow the same procedure as shown above for each monitor. That way, you would have four applications split across two monitors. Now if you’re kind of lazy like me and you would rather simply just click a button to split your screen, then you can buy a cool little program called SplitView for $29.

SplitView basically makes a GUI interface for this built-in Windows feature by adding buttons to each window that you have open to move it to the left or to the right.

You click the left arrow and that program gets split to the left and same for the arrow to the right. You can also configure keyboard shortcuts to make it even easier.

Probably only worth the $29 if you really split applications all the time at your office or at home. Otherwise, just select and right-click on the tabs! Any questions, post a comment!

[tags]split monitor, split widescreen monitor, split single monitor[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

33 Responses to “How to split your laptop or PC screen/monitor in Windows XP”

GARZ said on : May 11th, 2008 at 6:46 am

is there a single click method of getting out of split screen mode?

Tom Potter said on : July 31st, 2008 at 2:41 pm

I really appreciate the info on split screens but how do I change back to single screen??

jerry said on : August 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

i need a multimonitor system, can i get a program and split a 46″ tv into 4 separate screens?

lars said on : August 26th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

To exit out of the split screens mode, right click the taskbar and select UNDO TILE. Then just close all open documents windows. The next time you open the document or window-browser, it may be necessary to click on the Maximize tab in the upper right corner. hope this helps. lars

Linda said on : October 5th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

I want to download movies off graboid on to my dvd player recorder from my television and use my computer at the same time. Is this is possible? That is after I connect my pc to my TV. I want to be able to do both. Do I need to call the geek squad?

lynn said on : October 11th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

I’ve looked at split screen software, but I’m Scottish and no one gets my money…I love the article about split screen…can it be done with just internet explore so I can see two web sites at a time?…lynn

jonathan said on : October 24th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

if you split your screen lets say you have two video files running at the same time, is there a way to seperate the audio, like if i have two sets of head phones having one movie go to one set on headphones on my laptop, and then having the audio going to the other set of headphones in the other audio output jack.

delana said on : November 5th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

Is there anyway to have split screen capability for remote access or the internet?

McNovice said on : December 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

It’s amazing to discover such a simple solution. Thank-you!

I am a simple user with no technical interests and limited hardware (dial-up, elderly computer–you get the picture, I’m sure). Because wait times online are increasing for me, I wanted to more efficiently multi-task.

For now, your tip did the job. When I just want to seene application, I switch from one application back and forth by maximizing and minimizing. Since this is my first day, the two applications were AOL and MS Word.

Thanks again. (From my online search, this tip seems hidden from simple users like me.)

McNovice said on : December 20th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Thank you for this amazing, simple solution. My needs are simple, my system is out-of-date (dial-up, elderly XP system–you get the picture I’m sure).

My two applications are AOL and MS Word 2003. It is just a click to move between the apps. When I want to focus on just one, I maximize it; minimizing brings back the split screen.

Thank you again! (Based on my search, these steps are still not well known.)

Fred said on : December 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

Thanks for the split screen instructions. Now how do I get back to normal. I tried to exit out by right clicking the task bar, but there is no UNDO TILE choice nor anything like it. What’s the trick? Thanks for any help.

Ron said on : January 20th, 2009 at 1:12 am

what im trying to do is hook two web cams up, i use them, or one at this time, for security at my trailor, mobile home. id like if its possible to view two at the same time on one monitor instead of useing two computers which being on ssi disability i cant afford.ANYTHING you can tell me would help… Godbless, Ron…..

milo said on : February 12th, 2009 at 9:28 pm

Hi

Nice tip for splitting screen. I have just hooked up a second screen to my laptop and i want to see different applications on them but what i get is the same screen mirrored. how do i tile my applications so that one goes to one screen and the other to the other screen?

Platform is window XP.

Thank you in advance for any tip.

Jack said on : April 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Thank you very much. You have basically saved me hours of time, switching back and forth between windows retyping text from other websites! Thank you again.

Core Birdy said on : May 12th, 2009 at 6:12 am

To solve this issue of splitting the monitor, I use twinsplay, it is a program that could be used to move application to the left or right side of the display. Thus allowing to work really efficiently with two windows side by side.

Widescreens monitors are becoming more and more common, in order to really use all that space, divide the widescreen, and get the feeling of having two screens using software. I use twinsplay since the shourtcut keys are really easy to use, in terms of moving my hands it’s similar to alt+tab, so it fairly agronomic. Also it has a great save and load for groups of application so it saves time to load a working environment, I’m working as programmer and those two features are really helpful.

Andrea said on : June 6th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

Amazing! I’m now able to read business planning articles online and write my business plan in Word at the same time.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joan Angwin said on : June 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

Tried this, after I select, the cascade, tile etc.. menu is completely grayed out.

Joan Angwin said on : June 11th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Ops, got it! right-click mouse in the windows tool bar! That worked.

Kyle said on : June 15th, 2009 at 6:12 am

I use a splitting program to have msn on one side and have made it so that only takes quarter of the screen and all other programs take the other 3/4.

Jane Sofield said on : July 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am

Your instructions for splitting the screen with two Word docs, or one Word and one Excel work just fine. However, it doesn’t work for two Excels or two Power Points, which are the two programs I use the most. Is there a different procedure for these two, or is it just impossible.

Peedle said on : September 13th, 2009 at 2:22 am

If you want to get rid of it you can just maximize the windows, it wasn’t that hard to figure out.

George Hawley said on : October 5th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Hi,

I have Vista. Does this work for it? What I want to do is have two Word documents showing on a split screen and to be able to copy text from one and move it to the second. Can this be done?

Thanks

James said on : November 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm

don’t buy that software. it’s a gimmick. You can split your sceen in the Control Panel for your Monitor. No software needed.Windows has this built in function.

Chris T. said on : December 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am

Hi. I am responsible for video display at our Church. We have a very tight budget for sound/video at this time. We use EZtrol and split? sccreen to show our power point on a large video screen for the congregation.

How do I split the Power Point to view on my computer & the wall video screen as we do now and have a view on my computer ONLY that I can view the same or different power point files to make changes “on the fly”? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Even if you can recommend a good “user friendly” program to purchase….prefer free if at all possible.
Chris

Rahman said on : December 31st, 2009 at 7:48 pm

Guys, try using Dexpot … it is a freeware enabling to split the desktop upto four sections …

jamil said on : January 18th, 2010 at 11:59 am

When I tried to open two MS Word documents on split screens of my pc, while following the above steps, it only split one document, but not into two separate documents. Please give your suggestions. thank you.

Hugh M. Vandervoort said on : January 25th, 2010 at 11:24 pm

For Office Docs (Word, Excel) Look under the “Window’ Menu, select “arrange”.

Lisa said on : February 2nd, 2010 at 9:20 pm

How do you set up dual monitors in XP?

My secondary monitor is a widescreen that I can pivot/rotate 90 degrees. How do I get my display to pivot/rotate as well?

bill anderson said on : February 13th, 2010 at 3:48 pm

1) Is it compatibale with windows vista Intel G-45/G-43
2) can the split screen format be pre set so it will be there after computer re boot

Ideally want right 20% of screen stacked with 3 -4 different windows open for stock quotes bloomberg tv etc

gie said on : March 8th, 2010 at 12:23 am

I was trying to find a Firefox plugin to split screen while browsing, happy to have stumbled upon your article although it only mentioned about MS office. I tried with browser and it worked perfectly. Undoing the split screen, I just maximized each screen as I couldn’t find the elusive undo button. well, I’m more than happy to know that I can do these things without installing anything in my computer. many thanks!

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