Although most modern operating systems offer you the facility to work across multiple monitors, it’s impractical for most scenarios. Our cramp work desks simply lack the space to enable us to have two large screens. For this reason, we tend to be given one larger screen, maximising the space and location on our desk.

There are ways to improve our productivity with the one monitor. For instance, in the latest OS X there is a function to use multiple desktop configurations, so you can open applications on their own desktop and then quickly switch between these desktops using a key configuration. This means you could have your desktop publishing tool open on one desktop and then your image editor open on another. If you need to open and edit the occasional image, simply move across to the other desktop and then move back when you are finished.

Opening another desktop enables you to launch an application full screen. You could have your burning software open full-screen on desktop 2, whilst desktop 1 is used for your regular apps, such as your browser, email client and so on.

Desktops is a brand new virtual desktop manager from Microsoft that enables you to open up to four desktops and then quickly move between them.