Screen Size

[Dr. Evil]

Solved a screen sizing issue! Is there a better way then what is described below?

My solution is used by many people in the company, some have 17 in. screens while others have 30 in. I originally designed and developed the solution on my 30 in. So you can guess when viewed on a 17 in., it did not fit.

To solve this, I redesigned to fit on the 17 in. (the smallest in the company) and give user the option on start up to view a large screen or a small screen. Typically, users with a 30 in. monitor view the large screen which is simply the 17 in. layout zoomed to 150%.

Also, while designing the new layout, I noticed some fragmentation to fields, embossments, etc... when viewing at 150%. To prevent this, I set all objects to an even number. For example a field box is 100 px x 16 px and spaced 6 px apart. Makes for a much cleaner look in both views, 100% and 150%.

Any additional notes on this subject would be very interesting to hear. Thank you, get your code on!

[Vaughan]

If using FMP 9 and later, the auto-size function can be set up to make your layout objects grow and reposition as the window is made larger. Thus the layout for 17 inch screen can be enlarged by the user and take advantage of the extra real estate.

Alternatively, instead of prompting the user use a conditional in the startup script that uses Get( ScreenWidth ) and displays the appropriate layout accordingly.

[Dr. Evil]

I'm currently taking full advantage of the anchoring of objects. What a cool feature! I can not believe this was not always available, crazy looking at old solutions.

The biggest issues was the readability of the fonts, fonts where too large or too small and hard to read.

I did think of doing an auto screen check, but decided to leave it up to the user, due to eye sight, my elderly friends may want to use the large screen, even if they are on a small screen and visa versa.

[Dr. Evil]

Tho I may want to add a feature where user can check a box to set preference and never be asked again. Any ideas how to do this?

[Vaughan]

Then you'll need a "user" record for each and every user, and an ability for the users to change the option if required.

Sounds like too many options for the user, and too much work for the developer.

User Preferences = indecisive developer

The FMP client on Windows has a preference to make the screen bigger, which is the equivalent of 150% zooming.

[Dr. Evil]

Noted my friend. Sometimes I do tend to complicate things. Thank you. :)