forms looks different on different platform; limited things can change in OS theme

[Ryan Liu]

Hi,

I have a big urgent problem to solve.

I used to use Windows 2000 Chinese version, now I installed Windows XP
(English) system.

The problem is not about 2000 or XP, it is about English and Chinese.

All forms of my compiled C# desktop application, as well as in Visual Studio
2003(English) design view are looks different under two system.

e.g. The text on a button are wrapped; the toolbar are wrapped so half
buttons are unseen!

The location, size, font values are even different in property sheet in VS
2003. Those values actually are unspecified, they are using default values.

I think I need modify OS theme(Control Panel - Display - Appearance), but
what I can modify is so limited there, it is right place to go, but it can
not solve my problem.

Using no default values, explicitly specify the font family, font size,
button size, location might help this un-consistent problem, but I have 200K
lines code already written.

Or I can just make button longer, it can solve the wrap problem, but as
said, I have 200K lines code, AND, after I make it longer, it will be too
long in Chinese OS. Besides, there is no enough room for all buttons to be
larger.

Can someone give me the solutoin?

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Ryan,

It's not so much that it is a difference between the OS's, but rather,
the culture and locale that it is set up for. Different cultures/locales
are going to use different fonts for the rendering of languages. On top of
that, the text that you use for one language is not going to be the same as
the text you use for another language.

Because of this, you have to go through all the visual elements in your
project and make sure that for any language, they can handle the largest
text and font combinations for all the languages you support.

For example, say you have languages A and B, where you have the
following words:

A: asdfasdr
B: loiuluoiuljioyuoi

These are not real words, obviously, but it shows that some
words/phrases translate into longer strings than you might expect. Also,
you have to accomidate for what the system font is going to be (or set to
one set of fonts that you can render things consistently with for any
language).

Given that, you have to go through and look at the layout to see that
for any language the layout isn't compromised by the way elements specific
to a culture/locale (i.e. translations of text) are represented.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ryan Liu]

Nicholas,



Thanks a lot!



On both Chinese and English version Windows OS, I set same local to
China(Control Panel - Regional and language Options).



And my applicatoin does not translate from one languare to another. On both
OS, it always displays Chinese fonts(On English versioin Windows XP, I set
languare to Chinese-PRC for non-Unicode programs).



Even I ignore the font family and size, how come the size, location of all
buttons will be set to different values when I add a lable in Visual Studio
2003 on a different OS?



Thanks a lot!

Ryan

Ryan,

It's not so much that it is a difference between the OS's, but rather,
the culture and locale that it is set up for. Different cultures/locales
are going to use different fonts for the rendering of languages. On top
of that, the text that you use for one language is not going to be the
same as the text you use for another language.

Because of this, you have to go through all the visual elements in your
project and make sure that for any language, they can handle the largest
text and font combinations for all the languages you support.

For example, say you have languages A and B, where you have the
following words:

A: asdfasdr
B: loiuluoiuljioyuoi

These are not real words, obviously, but it shows that some
words/phrases translate into longer strings than you might expect. Also,
you have to accomidate for what the system font is going to be (or set to
one set of fonts that you can render things consistently with for any
language).

Given that, you have to go through and look at the layout to see that
for any language the layout isn't compromised by the way elements specific
to a culture/locale (i.e. translations of text) are represented.

Hope this helps.

--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Hi,

I have a big urgent problem to solve.

I used to use Windows 2000 Chinese version, now I installed Windows XP
(English) system.

The problem is not about 2000 or XP, it is about English and Chinese.

All forms of my compiled C# desktop application, as well as in Visual
Studio 2003(English) design view are looks different under two system.

e.g. The text on a button are wrapped; the toolbar are wrapped so half
buttons are unseen!

The location, size, font values are even different in property sheet in
VS 2003. Those values actually are unspecified, they are using default
values.

I think I need modify OS theme(Control Panel - Display - Appearance), but
what I can modify is so limited there, it is right place to go, but it
can not solve my problem.

Using no default values, explicitly specify the font family, font size,
button size, location might help this un-consistent problem, but I have
200K lines code already written.

Or I can just make button longer, it can solve the wrap problem, but as
said, I have 200K lines code, AND, after I make it longer, it will be too
long in Chinese OS. Besides, there is no enough room for all buttons to
be larger.

Can someone give me the solutoin?

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Ryan Liu]

Nicholas,



Thanks a lot!



On both Chinese and English version Windows OS, I set same local to
China(Control Panel - Regional and language Options).



And my applicatoin does not translate from one languare to another. On
both OS, it always displays Chinese fonts(On English versioin Windows XP,
I set languare to Chinese-PRC for non-Unicode programs).



Even I ignore the font family and size, how come the size, location of all
buttons will be set to different values when I add a lable in Visual
Studio 2003 on a different OS?



Thanks a lot!

Ryan

Ryan,

It's not so much that it is a difference between the OS's, but rather,
the culture and locale that it is set up for. Different cultures/locales
are going to use different fonts for the rendering of languages. On top
of that, the text that you use for one language is not going to be the
same as the text you use for another language.

Because of this, you have to go through all the visual elements in
your project and make sure that for any language, they can handle the
largest text and font combinations for all the languages you support.

For example, say you have languages A and B, where you have the
following words:

A: asdfasdr
B: loiuluoiuljioyuoi

These are not real words, obviously, but it shows that some
words/phrases translate into longer strings than you might expect. Also,
you have to accomidate for what the system font is going to be (or set to
one set of fonts that you can render things consistently with for any
language).

Given that, you have to go through and look at the layout to see that
for any language the layout isn't compromised by the way elements
specific to a culture/locale (i.e. translations of text) are represented.

Hope this helps.

--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Hi,

I have a big urgent problem to solve.

I used to use Windows 2000 Chinese version, now I installed Windows XP
(English) system.

The problem is not about 2000 or XP, it is about English and Chinese.

All forms of my compiled C# desktop application, as well as in Visual
Studio 2003(English) design view are looks different under two system.

e.g. The text on a button are wrapped; the toolbar are wrapped so half
buttons are unseen!

The location, size, font values are even different in property sheet in
VS 2003. Those values actually are unspecified, they are using default
values.

I think I need modify OS theme(Control Panel - Display - Appearance),
but what I can modify is so limited there, it is right place to go, but
it can not solve my problem.

Using no default values, explicitly specify the font family, font size,
button size, location might help this un-consistent problem, but I have
200K lines code already written.

Or I can just make button longer, it can solve the wrap problem, but as
said, I have 200K lines code, AND, after I make it longer, it will be
too long in Chinese OS. Besides, there is no enough room for all
buttons to be larger.

Can someone give me the solutoin?

Thanks a lot in advance!

BTW, even the size of form, the size of pixbox will be changed and only part
of the picture is shown on English Version XP Home edition.

This has nothing to do with font family or font size.

Any help is appreciated!