Cross Platform Dropdown Size

R

RickGreg

The dropdown list I referenced in a prior post is being created on my Mac
(Excel 11.3.7/OS 10.4.11) and will primarily be used by Windows users.

They are telling me that the dropdown list appears much smaller on their
windows machines than on my mac, to the point of not being able to read the
text.

Is there any way for me to control the text size so it will appear bigger on
the other platform?

Thanks.
 
R

RickGreg

The dropdown list I referenced in a prior post is being created on my Mac
(Excel 11.3.7/OS 10.4.11) and will primarily be used by Windows users.

They are telling me that the dropdown list appears much smaller on their
windows machines than on my mac, to the point of not being able to read the
text.

Is there any way for me to control the text size so it will appear bigger on
the other platform?

Thanks.

I should add that to view the file, they (windows users) must reduce
magnification to approx 70% to see fully what I can see at 100% or more.
This suggests an overall resolution compatitibility issue.
 
J

Jim Gordon MVP

RickGreg said:
I should add that to view the file, they (windows users) must reduce
magnification to approx 70% to see fully what I can see at 100% or more.
This suggests an overall resolution compatitibility issue.
Hi,

What you are experiencing is the result of two factors.

One factor is that the typical Mac user purchases a monitor that has a
very low "dot pitch" which results in very high quality displays. The
typical windows user picks a cheap monitor that has low quality. It's
only a slight exaggeration to say that the dots on your Mac are like
grains of sand and the dots on a typical PC display are like marbles. So
everything looks big to them.

The other factor is that there is a 1:1 ratio of pixel to points on a
Mac. On PCs there's always scaling involved, so no matter what, they
can't see points as pixels, so again, things look bigger on their screens.

In most cases there is a about a 30% difference, which is exactly what
you are observing.

I use a macro on just about every workbook I create. It checks to see
what operating system is being used, then sets the zoom control and fits
the window to the screen. This works great in all versions of Excel
except Excel 2008, which does not support macros.

Here's a code sample of what I sometimes use:

'Adjust zoom for platform
If Application.OperatingSystem Like "*Mac*" Then
Sheets(Array("Sheet1", "Sheet2")).Select
Sheets("Comments").Activate
ActiveWindow.Zoom = 100
Sheets("p1").Select
With ActiveWindow
.WindowState = xlMaximized
.Top = 1
.Left = 1
.Height = Application.UsableHeight
.Width = Application.UsableWidth
End With
Else
Sheets(Array("Sheet1", "Sheet2")).Select
Sheets("Comments").Activate
ActiveWindow.Zoom = 70
Sheets("p1").Select
With ActiveWindow
.WindowState = xlMaximized
End With
End If

Notice that the window handling for Windows is different from the window
handling on the Mac.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9
 

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