I'm thinking of getting a netbook, mainly for surfing but I'd also like to use it sometimes for things like excel and word for work stuff where I'd like to be able to plug in a 15 or 19" monitor, keyboard and mouse to essentially make it just like a normal computer.

I'm a but concerned though that it won't cope with the larger screen as well as the office programs.

Anyone done this themselves?

They're fine. I've hooked up my gf's Dell Mini 9 (same Intel 945 graphics as every other netbook these days) to my 24" monitor and it coped fine for typical office apps. Just don't expect to do full-screen HD video or anything.

Good news then.

Screen size won't make much difference.

Well no, I guess really I mean resolution.

I've used our Samsung N110 (good netbook by the way) on a 1280×1024 19" monitor and it's own display simultaneously (i.e. two seperate desktops) and it worked fine. I think most of them should manage this.