Visually testing your database

[Damob9K]

Hello all,

Just wandering what people here do about testing your Access DB's on different screen sizes.

Other than physically using a 17" monitor or using VMWare or alternative, is there any monitor emulators out there ?

I've done a quick search, but it looks like there are plenty of web apps to test web sites in different resolutions, but nothing that I can see that can test an actual application.

Any how just wandering how you guys/gals go about it, before I re-install VMWare.

Cheers

D.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I design for a standard pixel resolution. the startup code checks and warns the users if there reolution is lower than my standard.

eg, if they are set to 800x600, as they will need to do some scrolling!

 

[Mile-O]

I don't, as it's not really been an issue where I am.

However, although it may take a bit more work, you could design forms for different screen resolutions and then do a check via VBA to determine which resolution is being used and then load up the relevant form tailored to that resolution.

 

[Damob9K]

OK thanks chaps.

I did try some VBA code that was designed for Access 2003 I think, that was supposed to be able to re-size the forms based on the users resolution, but it didn't work.

It's probably well beyond my knowledge level at the moment to code this myself.

And I'd rather not have to redesign all my forms with differing sizes, I have 37 of them !!

See the problem is that I designed the DB at home with a 24" widescreen, I have 2 x 19" monitors on my work PC, but the majority of the people that are going to be using this DB have 17" monitors and are using thin clients that default to 1024x768 (we had to lower the res from 1280x1024 because too many people complained that the text was too small :banghead: )

I've got a 17" monitor up in the loft, i'm going to drag it down now and resize the forms to fit, if that's the only way.

The other problem I have that i mentioned in another post, is that I can't seem to change the text size in the dataview subforms (of which I use a lot), it was mentioned that this may be because I used the wizard to create a navigation form, and it is using a theme.

So the problem is that I have to reduce the form size down, but can't reduce the text size to allow for the smaller form size ... argh !!

Anyone know how to override the theme issue ??

Thanks

D.

 

[spikepl]

So the problem is that I have to reduce the form size down, but can't reduce the text size to allow for the smaller form size

No it's not. You just have to use the real estate that you have available more sparingly. You cannot reduce text size because:

we had to lower the res from 1280x1024 because too many people complained that the text was too small

You simply cannot stuff so much stuff on a small screen as on a big screen. Use separate forms, or form pages, or tabs.

 

[Damob9K]

Hi spikepl , I think you misunderstand me slightly...

I fully understand that you can't get as much on a smaller screen than a larger one !

But the issue I have is that I can't change the text size in the Access forms, no matter what PC or monitor I run it on, it's the not the text size of the monitor that i'm talking about.

What is happening is that I can change the text size in the subform to say 9 but when the subform is opened from the navigation form, it always displays the text at 11.

And if I were able to set the text size to 9 or 10 then with the lower resolution of the users monitors, the subform would then be fully visible without the need to use the scroll bar.

Does that make more sense ?

Cheers

D.

 

[spikepl]

Not really You decrease the resolution of monitors to make your application more readable, and then decrease the size of text and hence make it less readable. So your desire to make the text smaller runs counter to making the resolution smaller.

If your form was designed on twice the size of real esatte that your users have access to, then you are not likely to be able to squish your form by force-fitting it, and still maintain readability.

 

[Damob9K]

Sorry spikepl but I have to disagree with you !!

If you write something in font size 10 on a monitor running at 1280x1024 it will physically look smaller than if you displayed the same text on a monitor running at 800x600, because it is scaling it.

so : I need to reduce my form sizes down (only by a small amount BTW - I had already taken the size difference into consideration, I just didn't have a 17" monitor to hand to test)

And if I reduce the form sizes down, some of the forms with datasheet subforms will then need to use the horizontal slide bar to view them fully (which I want to avoid)
So by reducing the text size in the datasheet subform, I can reduce the column width which then allows the form to be viewed without scrolling.

The only difference between someone viewing the database at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 will be that the whole form will be bigger at 1024x768.
So for the persons that are using the higher resolution, the text and the forms will be smaller (that's fine as they clearly don't have eyesight issues) and the persons using the lower resolution will see a larger form with larger text.

Anyway, not sure why we are arguing about this, this is like the laws of physics, it's not really arguable !!

What I really want is some help on figuring out why Access won't let me change the text size in my navigation forms

Anyone ??

Cheers

D.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

It's a bigger problem than just resizing. What you really need is to resize the form but to have some controls anchored to a particular edge of the form, and others growing or shrinking to fill the available space.

 

[Damob9K]

Hmm, not really got my head around what anchoring was all about

I think i'm just going to whack a 17" on my desk at work and resize things for the lowest used resolution (1024x768) and see how it all looks, then go from there if it still needs tweaking.

Just want to be able to change the font size in the subforms !!!!

Cheers for all comments /help

D.

 

[Mile-O]

Perhaps put up a physical form example. All else is theoretical.

 

[Damob9K]

Solved the issue of not being able to change the font size in datasheet view ... if anyone's interested ...

You have to open the subform in datasheet view then change the font size via the ribbon <Home - Text Formatting>

For some reason datasheets ignore all font settings set in the design view !

Cheers

D.

 

[Galaxiom]

The ultimate solution would be to design forms using something like style sheets. Imagine if Access had the full CSS capability to dynamically control maximum and minimum width and heights, margins, borders according to styles applied to classes of objects.

I have no doubt a class module could be developed to implement CSS in an Access application. Would be an interesting project but a definitely a big job.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

The point i made before about anchoring and so on.

A form is likely to have various text boxes, command buttons and so on. You may not want to resize the buttons, and you probably want to keep them in the same position relative to a particular edge of a form. Thats what i meant. Its not just changing font sizes to fill the whole screen.