IMPROVE WORD’S SPELL CHECK
Microsoft Word’s ‘Spelling and Grammar’ tools take a slightly different approach to the notion of annoying the hell out of you when you’re typing. Rather than automatically changing any unfamiliar word, it fills your screen with red and green dotted lines to indicate supposedly incorrect spelling and grammar.
As with mobile autocorrect, Microsoft’s dotted lines are annoyingly blunt instruments. The grammar check, especially, fails to take into account the subtleties of the English language and the way we express ourselves informally, and we think it’s best switched off altogether.
The spell check can be useful, and you can set it to autocorrect certain
We could fill a whole magazine by discussing the finer points of creating perfectly balanced brightness and contrast, and accurate colour reproduction – but we need to be concise here.
First, you’re not imagining this: your display will appear less bright (and with reduced contrast) at the top and bottom. This phenomenon is normal and defined by the viewing angle and contrast ratio. Wider viewing angles and higher contrast ratios are both beneficial, but sadly there’s no agreed standard for defining what these terms really mean.
For your specific display model Iiyama claims ‘viewing zones’ (meaning viewing angles) of up to 178
Adegrees for both the horizontal and vertical. That’s not a dishonest claim: if you crane your neck to view the screen from an angle of 89 degrees in any one direction, you’ll still be able to see something on screen. Well, just about: 89 degrees is basically side-on, so simple geometry dictates that anything you see will be massively distorted and hard to make out.
But look a bit closer at Iiyama’s specifications and you’ll see that the 178-degree claim is qualified by ‘CR>5’: this means that at extreme angles the contrast ratio will be just 5:1 (from the display’s 1000:1 ‘typical’ rating). A low contrast ratio means it’s more difficult to distinguish one object from another, even if those objects have very high contrast (such as white-on-black text).
In fact, for your display Iiyama also states a second viewing-angle specification of 170 degrees horizontally and 160 degrees vertically, meaning only within that notional cone will you see contrast ratios above 5:1 (and closer to the monitor’s 1000:1 ‘typical’ claim).
Key to your solution is to find a monitor that offers better brightness and contrast at extreme viewing angles. Manufacturers make extravagant claims about all these points, so you really need to try before you buy. And keep an eye on our Reviews section for recommendations.