I have an excellent idea for those who like to make maya easier for the newbies.
 

I do not know any MEL scripting whatsoever, but I attend to type in a command or two when it comes to tutorials. Anyway, I was thinking: When a user is working on a project and he/she wants to see the resault in a rendering aspect. I said to myself "what if the user presses a button that switches from presp view to a rendering view". Then that way it will be allot easier then customizing your view for the interface.

does that sound like a good idea?

There are options for viewing gates in the window, making you able to see how much the rendering-camera covers, but i have not used it myself.

yep sounds good... and as undseth says "There are options for viewing gates in the window, making you able to see how much the rendering-camera covers"

but I also have not used it... but you never know :)

I use them always while setting the final view for my renderings. They really help positioning the camera to get the most interesting view. It's like photographing or shooting a video. Same "rules" apply.