Thanks guys, logging out and back in solved the resolution problem. I've set the resolution for my LCD monitor to 1280 by 1024 at 60hz which is the same as the set-up in Mint and it looks a hell of a lot better now. There is a setting listed for a flat panel at the same size but to be honest I don't know if I should use that setting so I left it alone. Btw my monitor is listed as a NCI 17".
So far I'm impressed with PCLinux, but there's some changes that I will want to make so I'll do some checking around before diving in. So far I've found out that I'll be able to change the menu bar colour, which is one of the things that I'm not too keen on in Mint, but I'll want to keep the window buttons that I use in Mint - they're the windows vista type, some things are so hard to let go off. After that I guess I'll just play around until I find a set-up I like...and then change it some more.