Form Sizes

[Kieron White]

Hi,

I have developed a database with a series of forms and a variety of
different users.
Each user has different resolutions on their screen and I have a serious
issue with the size of the access forms as on the users screens they do not
quite fit the screen.

Is there any way or thing that can be done to ensure that the size of the
access screen fits other users of my database no matter what screen
resolution they use?

Many Thanks
Kieron White

 

[Larry Linson]

Is there any way or thing that can be
done to ensure that the size of the
access screen fits other users of my
database no matter what screen
resolution they use?

Yes, there are approaches to doing this, but, in fact, if you expand a form
designed to work nicely on a 14" notebook screen at 800X600 to fill a 21"
screen at a higher resolution, not only are you forcing the user to view in
full-screen mode (which the user may well not wish to do) but if you enlarge
all the components... text boxes, labels, etc.... they may appear "huge"
like print in a beginning reader's primer.

All, or most, editions of The Access <versionnumber> Developer's Handbook,
by Litwin, Getz, et al, published by Sybex, have an example of screen
resizing and there are third-party software products to shrink/stretch, for
example (but not the only one), at http://www.peterssoftware.com/, you'll
find Peter DeBaets' ShrinkerStretcher.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[SF]

Does Microsoft fix this screen issue in Office 2007?

SF

 

[Rick Brandt]

Does Microsoft fix this screen issue in Office 2007?

It's not really an "issue". You should design your forms taking into account
the lowest resolution that any of your users have.

While there is code that will resize your forms that really only works "well" to
make forms larger on higher resolution screens which is unneccessary and
unwelcome in most cases.

Making forms smaller on lower resolution screens is useful and most likely would
be welcome but the code doesn't work nearly as well in that direction. This is
particularly true for certain kinds of form controls like TabPages and subforms.

The problem is that developers usually have higher resolution screens than their
typical user so the need to have forms adjust for lower resolutions is the one
that most people need (and again that is the one that is not as effective).

So...set a standard. I use 800 by 600. Many others use 1024 by 768. Then
design your app so it works well at that "documented" standard. If you have
only one or two users running below your standard then they likely are due for a
screen upgrade anyway. It doesn't take expensive hardware to meet either of
those two minimums.

 

[SF]

Thank for the advice!

SF

It's not really an "issue". You should design your forms taking into
account the lowest resolution that any of your users have.

While there is code that will resize your forms that really only works
"well" to make forms larger on higher resolution screens which is
unneccessary and unwelcome in most cases.

Making forms smaller on lower resolution screens is useful and most likely
would be welcome but the code doesn't work nearly as well in that
direction. This is particularly true for certain kinds of form controls
like TabPages and subforms.

The problem is that developers usually have higher resolution screens than
their typical user so the need to have forms adjust for lower resolutions
is the one that most people need (and again that is the one that is not as
effective).

So...set a standard. I use 800 by 600. Many others use 1024 by 768.
Then design your app so it works well at that "documented" standard. If
you have only one or two users running below your standard then they
likely are due for a screen upgrade anyway. It doesn't take expensive
hardware to meet either of those two minimums.

 

[Ron2006]

And of course there is the other aspect that some users have really no
choice about what size/resolution they use because they have vision
problems and HAVE to use the lower resolution.

We have that problem here in that some of the apps are web based and
designed by the parent company and certain aspects of the form/page are
imposible for some of our people to use. Visually they are forced to
use the lower resolution BUT some of the tabs on the page are off the
screen and not addressable.

Poor eyesight is a bummer.

Ron

 

[Rick Brandt]

And of course there is the other aspect that some users have really no
choice about what size/resolution they use because they have vision
problems and HAVE to use the lower resolution.

We have that problem here in that some of the apps are web based and
designed by the parent company and certain aspects of the form/page
are imposible for some of our people to use. Visually they are forced
to use the lower resolution BUT some of the tabs on the page are off
the screen and not addressable.

Poor eyesight is a bummer.

Ron

A larger display set to a higher resolution can still solve that. If users
need lower than 1024 by 768 on a screen 17 inches or larger then (IMO)
corrective glasses should be purchased.

 

[Pieter Wijnen]

Not to start a flame - but there are people who are virtually blind out
there - even with glasses

Pieter

 

[Rick Brandt]

Not to start a flame - but there are people who are virtually blind
out there - even with glasses

But wouldn't magnification lenses accomplish exactly the same thing as
larger fonts on your monitor? I'm not talking about standard corrective
lenses, but reading glasses that just make things look larger.

If my job required I spend time in front of a monitor and certain things
were hard to read I would either get a larger display or use magnifying
lenses. At some point the developer/programmer is going to have to draw a
line and you are also going to be dealing with applications where asking the
programmer to change it is not an option.

My only point is that if it affects more than one or two apps that the
person uses then expecting the "fix" to come from the software is not going
to be practical.

 

[Pieter Wijnen]

true, & there's even software developed for that purpose
my appologies

Pieter

 

[Ron2006]

Yes there are some settings that you can change and with some apps that
works. The app that I mentioned that was web based and the tab was off
the screen functioned even worse when those settings were invoked. I
still haven't figured out how they did it, but parts of the page would
adjust properly for these "handicap" settings, but others were
impossible to deal with. For instance one popup type window was FIXED
size, no matter what the settings, and with thelarger font settings.
the letters just got bigger inside the window so half the message was
lost off to the right side of the window. This made even more items in
the application un-workable and/or unreadable.

Working in a lowbid outsource situation, people tend to make due rather
than risk asking their employer to spend money on them for a "larger
monitor" (such extravagance).

Just a thought we developers should keep in mind. Watch the people work
with your app (or try it yourself) to see how well what we have
consturcted works within the work flow.

Ron