We all know that a second monitor is great for productivity, but have you considered using a vertical monitor as your second monitor? I've used a second monitor for years, but when I moved out and got a new desk three years ago, I was lacking enough space to have two, full-size monitors on my desk. As a result, I took my second monitor and mounted it in portrait mode, and to be honest, I don't think I could ever go back.

Technically, I started using my second monitor in portrait mode when I was working on my Bachelor's Thesis, as I found that it was great for reading papers that I was referencing at the time. Now, though, it's become an important part of my day-to-day usage of my PC, and these are the biggest reasons why.

Put your old hardware to use

Nearly any monitor can be used in portrait mode

Most monitors can be used in a vertical orientation as long as the stand supports tilting or the display can be mounted on an aftermarket arm, it doesn't just have to be one of the best monitors. That means if you have an old monitor lying around, you can stick it on an aftermarket arm at the very least and switch it to portrait mode form within Windows.

Repurposing an old monitor by switching it to a vertical setup can breathe new life into the display, making it a useful addition to your workspace. Whether you have a single or dual horizontal screen setup, adding a vertical monitor can be particularly useful for communication apps and other tasks, which we'll be talking about!

Multitasking

Two landscape windows, instead of two portrait ones

When you're multitasking on your PC, you probably keep multiple applications open at a time. While two monitors are great for this, you may want to open multiple applications on the same display sometimes. With a portrait monitor, this is especially great, as I can split-screen three applications at a time that are all in landscape mode, rather than two that are in portrait mode.

Granted, this is personal preference, but it's something that I really, really like. I can have a video playing in the top third of the display, along with my Discord in the middle of the display, and then finally some notes or another application on the bottom third of the display. It feels more freeing than just a regular landscape monitor, and also means that I can put it closer to my main monitor and see everything on it without needing to turn as much.

Reading

Great for papers, news articles, and more

The reason I started using a portrait monitor was for reading, and that's still one of the best reasons to do it. It's great for reading papers where you have to scroll a lot less, and it can be way easier to scan up and down the page. It feels more akin to reading an actual paper, as you can have the full sheet zoomed in in front of you.

While you can read on a regular landscape monitor, I found that it was so much easier to put research papers on my second monitor and look at it as if it were a book that I had open on the table. It was big, easy to read, and very, very convenient.

Space efficiency

If your desk is cramped like mine, it's an easy way to fit an extra monitor

If you have a desk that you don't think you can fit a second full-size monitor on, a vertical monitor might be the answer. It'll take up about half the space which means you can still use your second monitor without it going to waste.

For me, I couldn't fit a landscape second monitor in the space my monitor is in now, but there was also too much space that I still wanted to use it for something. A portrait monitor was the perfect in-between option and is an efficient use of the space on my desk.

Web development and programming

For testing your deployment and seeing all of your code

For web development, in particular, I found a portrait monitor to be excellent. It allows me to see what my website looks like on a vertical form factor like you would find on a smartphone, especially when I enable device emulation in Chrome. You can obviously just resize a window to do that, too, but this is significantly more convenient.

On top of that, just like with reading papers, a vertical monitor is great for programming. You can see all of your code and, if you need to see an output log, you can keep a console up on your second monitor too to see everything that's happening. It's incredibly useful and makes it easier to keep track of everything, as vertical space is at a premium in my experience when programming.

Social media

Discord, Spotify, and Twitter all look better on a portrait monitor

Anything with a timeline looks great on a portrait monitor, and any messaging app or social media platform fits into that. Twitter looks great, as does Discord, and in fact, Discord is probably what I use my second monitor for the most. It's helpful to have a chat up at the same time while I'm playing, and the same goes for Spotify.

With a portrait monitor setup, I can have both Spotify and Discord up at the same time and get a reasonable amount of information still out of both windows, which isn't necessarily the case when using a landscape monitor thanks to the fact that chats and playlists are inherently vertically scrolling. It's obviously not a big deal in and of itself, but it's something minor that I much prefer over a landscape monitor.