different screen and resolution sizes?

[Kirstie Adam]

hi all,

this is a general question about database design.

i have a database being used by 5 or 6 people, and on all but 1 persons
screen it looks great. however on one persons screen it is too big and only
about half of each page shows up at a time. i had to put in scroll bars so
that he could get around.

i assume this is because he has set his screen resolution differently - is
there a way to get around this???

kirstie

 

[Scott McDaniel]

hi all,

this is a general question about database design.

i have a database being used by 5 or 6 people, and on all but 1 persons
screen it looks great. however on one persons screen it is too big and only
about half of each page shows up at a time. i had to put in scroll bars so
that he could get around.

i assume this is because he has set his screen resolution differently - is
there a way to get around this???

Design your application to the lowest screen resolution you will support, but if you design it to fit one user's screen,
the other 5 are gonna start complaining ... welcome to the world of "user interactions" <g>.

You can use the various Resizer controls (a quick search on "ms access resizer" will show you what's available) if you
want to resize your forms. I've not yet found one that does a great job, however.

kirstie

Scott McDaniel
scott@takemeout_infotrakker.com
www.infotrakker.com

 

[BruceM]

As Scott pointed out, there are some resizing utilities. I have experience
only with some free code that I believe is part of the Access Developer's
Handbook. I would not use it again. It works adequately most of the time
to shrink the forms, etc., but does not seem to work very well in the other
direction (making things larger), which means you need to design for the
largest resolution. I hope I have remembered this part correctly.
If you split your database you can redesign front ends for different
resolutions. These links will provide some more information.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/Articles/split/index.htm
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/splitapp/
A groups search will turn up plenty of discussion on the subject.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

While there's nothing stopping you from redesigning your front ends to
accomodate different users, it's not really a recommended approach: every
time you make a change, you'll have to make it in each version of the
front-end. Far better is to include logic that detects the screen resolution
and resizes the forms appropriately.

 

[BruceM]

Maybe I'm using the wrong resizing utility. Actually, what I have been
doing is to design a front end for 1024 x 768, which works well with higher
resolutions and those intended for wide screens. For the 800 x 600
holdouts, I add scroll bars. Maybe I could detect the screen resolution,
and add scroll bars accordingly. That just occurred to me this moment, so I
don't know if it's practical. Of course, if the form already has scroll
bars, I don't need to change anything.

 

[BruceM]

Thanks for pointing out the link. Unfortunately, the documentation points
out that there are problems with continuous subforms, and with tab controls
and option groups, so I probably won't try it on projects with these
features. It seems that unlike the ADH resize utility, it does not require
a separate file, so that is a plus.

 

[Kirstie Adam]

all, thanks for providing me with lots of thoughts on this subject.
something for me to mull over!
i will come back and let you all know what i end up doing......

kirstie