Form size and screen resolution

[Bruce]

Being rather new at this, it hadn't occurred to me that
there would be a problem using the forms I developed on a
machine with 1024 x 768 resolution that they wouldn't work
properly without scroll bars on an 800 x 600 machine. I
looked at a couple of options, including one from Peter's
Software and one from ADH. Neither did a thing (in fact,
the ADH code made it worse) going from 1024 x 768 to 800 x
600, but I had some success with the ADH code after I
redesigned the form layout at 800 x 600 and opened it at
1024 x 768. My question is, do any of these resizing
programs actually work, or am I better off just using 800
x 600 to design a database (a resolution that works very
poorly on my laptop, by the way)? More to the point, did
it not occur to Microsoft that this might happen? Don't
bother to answer that last question. I just remembered
these are the same folks who can't imagine anyone wanting
a command button to be some color other than gray.

 

[Graham R Seach]

Bruce,

How you develop forms with regard to screen size and resolution, is an
individual thing, and that's why Microsoft (and every other language
developer) leave it up to us, as application developers. It's up to you to
consider the target platform, the SOE (standard operating environment), and
the screen properties your users are likely to use.

The resizers available on the market today are fairly good in my opinion,
however, they can't possibly handle every control that's available from a
myriad of vendors. Also, since Access employs nested subforms, it's pretty
hard to handle them in a single control at a single level.

As little as 5-6 years ago, it was arguably still good practice to design
forms to accommodate 640x480 screen resolution. These days, we tend to work
around 800x600.

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia

Microsoft Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0764559036.html

 

[Bruce]

Unfortunately there is not really a standard operating
environment here. People with laptops have 1024 x 768,
and most desktop PCs use 800 x 600. Since I use a laptop
that displays 800 x 600 quite poorly (sort of blurred), I
will just have to get used to designing projects on a
portion of the screen, then switching to 800 x 600 for
final formatting. As I mentioned, the ADH code works
pretty well on a 1024 x 768 machine when the application
is designed at 800 x 600. The Peter's Software code seems
to depend on opening the form as an event rather than as
the startup screen. I will give it a try when that comes
up. Thanks for the input.

 

[Peter De Baets]

The Peter's Software code seems

to depend on opening the form as an event rather than as
the startup screen.

There are different ways to implement ShrinkerStretcher. These are
described in the help file in the installation section.

You can put the code "SS_OnOpen Me", and "SS_OnResize Me" in the form
OnOpen and OnResize event procedures, respectively.

You can open your forms with the "SS_OpenForm" function instead of the
"Docmd.OpenForm" method.

There's also a way to rescale and save forms at the new size at
application startup so there's no scaling overhead when it comes time
to eventually open the forms.

More info is here: http://www.peterssoftware.com/ss.htm

Hope this helps,

Peter De Baets
Peter's Software - MS Access Tools for Developers
http://www.peterssoftware.com