Screen size aware layouts?

[David Maffucci]

Hello,

My Mac has a huge 27" display. When I made my database, I made use of all the screen real estate I had and I've got scripts which open and size all the files which makeup my database (about 8 or 9 files pop open when I open the "main" file) In any case I've now got a few users sharing the database with me but some are using Laptops which have small screens. As a result, some windows open off the display area of the laptop! Very odd. Is there any way to set the coordinates differently depending on which screen the user happens to be using when opening the file?

Bonus 2nd question...

Each of my files have carefully designed and tweaked layouts. Can I create ONE big window with a tabbed interface and then just copy and paste the layouts from the individual files into one? Crazy sounding but maybe so crazy it will work?!

Thanks for any advice

[Vaughan]

The FMP auto-size feature allows layout objects to *expand* to fill the available space. To take advantage of this you need to design the layout for the *smallest* screen size and format objects to auto-size and expand as the window gets bigger.

If there is a need for fully optimised layouts for both large and small screens then the only option is to design and build multiple sets of interfaces. Generally though, users of 27 in monitors don't maximise windows and tend to work with multiple smaller windows.

Designing the correct layout size is pretty important. First step is to decide what the smallest screen is you'll support -- not the largest. I design for 13 inch laptop screens, so the layout just fits the screen without scroll bars appearing. Remember to allow room for the menu bars, window frames, dock/taskbar and toolbars in your design. The amount of room these take up differs between operating systems so test with different platforms and versions.

You profile says you're using FMP 9 -- remember that FMP 9 was the last version the status area was on the left of the window, and FMP 10 and later it moved to the top of the window. This significantly affects your window design. I would not be doing anything in FMP 9 and designing for 10 and 11 and beyond.

One big layout with tabbed interfaces will probably NOT be satisfactory, because it can only display records from the one table the layout is based on. You'll most likely need at least one layout for each main table in your database (but probably not join tables).

[David Maffucci]

Thanks for the reply. I'll update my profile because I'm running 11 now. In any case, My layouts all work fine on small screens, the problem is the location of the windows. I have an open script which positions the window. At present, on 13, 15 and 17" screens it positions the windows either off the screen or very close to it. I'm wondering if there is a way to find the screen size and using that info change where the window is positioned on the screen. I'm using a "Move/Resize Window" command to do it now. Maybe embedding it in an If/then would allow me to have a small screen/big screen position.

[David Maffucci]

I had to figure this out...so I did! Understand, my AppleScript is nonexistent. I did some searches to come up with this...

(The AppleScript is clipped so here it is:)

tell application "Finder"

get bounds of window of desktop

set the clipboard to result as text

end tell

[Vaughan]

No need for AppleScript. Use FMP's Get( ScreenWidth ) and Get( ScreenHeight ) functions.