change resoulations back and forth

[isnoend07]

Hi wireguys
Been fighting screen resoulations . My setup now checks the screen res and adjusts the form accordingly for each res. Never had got this to perfection. My form on a pc running 1600x1200 my form is tiny and it is way too big too fit on 680x400. I do not like changing a users resolutation.Has anyone tried this:
Detect and change a users resolutation on form load and change it back if they click out of my program.and change it back when my program gets the focus again. I kinda got started and found i could not detect when a user clicks out of my form. The form lost focus seems worthless. How could i detect this?

[si_the_geek]

There is no way to do that reliably - even if your code is really good, there is always the chance that your program will be too busy, or perhaps even crash (thus leaving the user in the wrong resolution).

There are also other reasons you should not do it, such as a change of resolution moves icons that are on the desktop.


Why don't you do what other programs do instead - and get your resize code working properly? If you need help with it, we're here.

[Milk]

Personally I would get very annoyed with any desktop software that changed my screen resolution. However, even my Dad (60) has moved on from 680x400, and my graphics cards minimum is 800x600.

Hands up anyone who knows someone still working with 600x480?

[isnoend07]

There is no way to do that reliably - even if your code is really good, there is always the chance that your program will be too busy, or perhaps even crash (thus leaving the user in the wrong resolution).

There are also other reasons you should not do it, such as a change of resolution moves icons that are on the desktop.


Why don't you do what other programs do instead - and get your resize code working properly? If you need help with it, we're here.

I am worn out on resizing even purchased activeresize from vbgold. never can get the text to look properly.

[isnoend07]

I am worn out on resizing even purchased activeresize from vbgold. never can get the text to look properly.

And yes i use true type fonts

[si_the_geek]

Like many people here, I do it purely in code that I wrote myself... if you show us your code that does it (and give us an example of the problem(s)), we can help you correct it.

[isnoend07]

Like many people here, I do it purely in code that I wrote myself... if you show us your code that does it (and give us an example of the problem(s)), we can help you correct it.

Take a look here and let me know what you think
http://roofgenius.com/Help/index.html

[si_the_geek]

Is that your program?

If so, what do you think is wrong with the way it is displayed?

Just as importantly, what is your resize code?

[Ellis Dee]

Lately I've been working on how to handle scaling a form to match a screen resolution. While my solution doesn't yet handle advanced issues like tab controls, it works pretty darn nicely. It's even set up to automatically support regular or large fonts. All font sizes are based on screen resolution, and then the form and all controls are based on the font size.

Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

Public Sub FormLayout(pfrm As Form, pblnLargeFonts)
    Const SampleText = "Q"
    Dim sngFontSize As Single
    Dim lngWidth As Long
    Dim lngHeight As Long
    Dim lngExtraWidth As Long
    Dim lngExtraHeight As Long
    Dim sngX As Single
    Dim sngY As Single
    Dim ctl As Control
    
    LockWindow pfrm.hwnd
    sngFontSize = GetFontSize(pblnLargeFonts)
    If sngFontSize <> pfrm.FontSize Then
        With pfrm
            lngWidth = .TextWidth(SampleText)
            lngHeight = .TextHeight(SampleText)
            lngExtraWidth = .Width - .ScaleWidth
            lngExtraHeight = .Height - .ScaleHeight
            .FontSize = sngFontSize
            .Refresh
            sngX = .TextWidth(SampleText) / lngWidth
            sngY = .TextHeight(SampleText) / lngHeight
            .Move .Left, .Top, .ScaleWidth * sngX + lngExtraWidth, .ScaleHeight * sngY + lngExtraHeight
        End With
        On Error Resume Next
        For Each ctl In pfrm.Controls
            With ctl
                If TypeOf ctl Is Line Then
                    .X1 = .X1 * sngX
                    .X2 = .X2 * sngX
                    .Y1 = .Y1 * sngY
                    .Y2 = .Y2 * sngY
                Else
                    .FontSize = sngFontSize
                    .Move .Left * sngX, .Top * sngY, .Width * sngX, .Height * sngY
                End If
            End With
        Next
        On Error GoTo 0
        Set ctl = Nothing
    End If
    UnlockWindow
End Sub

Public Function GetFontSize(Optional pblnLarge As Boolean = False) As Single
    Dim lngHeight As Long
    
    With Screen
        lngHeight = .Height \ .TwipsPerPixelY
    End With
    If pblnLarge Then
        GetFontSize = lngHeight \ 66
    Else
        Select Case lngHeight
            Case 1024: GetFontSize = 12
            Case Else: GetFontSize = lngHeight \ 75
        End Select
    End If
End Function

You may notice at the end there that I hardcode font size 12 for the standard 1280x1024 fonts. (The auto-calculated size would be 12.75 IIRC.)

If you use this (or a modified version thereof) and decide that a hardcoded font size is appropriate for 1600x1200, please post here to let me know so I can include it. I can't run resolutions higher than 1280x1024, so I just have to hope they look okay.

Usage would be to maintain a global setting for whether the user wants large fonts or not, and in each Form_Load event simply call:

FormLayout Me, gblnLargeFonts

And then I'd recommend adding a Large Fonts? checkbox under Tools => Options, and if they change it iterate through the Forms collection calling FormLayout:

For Each frm In Forms
    FormLayout frm, gblnLargeFonts
Next

[Ellis Dee]

A useful tip is to then design all your forms using at least 12 pt fonts. The reason is that if you set them up with smaller fonts, the gap between controls will grow along with the rest of the form and look too spaced out. But if you use the larger fonts to begin with, shrinking the gaps looks just fine.

In my exhaustive testing, setting up a form in design view with 12pt fonts (I use Verdana) will result in very nice looking forms for both large and regular fonts in 800x600, 1024x762, 1152x864 and 1280x1024. I'm hoping it works equally well for 1600x1200; I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a try and let me know.

NOTE: At design time, the form itself must be set to the same font / font size as the controls on it.

[isnoend07]

Is that your program?

If so, what do you think is wrong with the way it is displayed?

Just as importantly, what is your resize code?

The way it is displayed problem is it is real small in 1600x1200.

Select Case res

Case "640x480"
MsgBox "RoofCalculator requires a minimum screen resolution of 800x600, best at 1280x1024"
Unload Me

Case "800x600"
Me.Top = 0
Me.Left = 0
Me.Width = 12000
Me.Height = 8600

Case "1024x768"
Me.Width = 12050
Me.Height = 9000
Me.Left = (Screen.Width - Me.Width) / 2
Me.Top = (Screen.Height - Me.Height) / 2


Case "1152x864" 'couldn't test this don't have this resolutation
Me.Width = Screen.Width * 0.67
Me.Height = 8840
Left = (Screen.Width - Width) / 2
Me.Top = (Screen.Height - Me.Height) / 2
Me.Picture7.Width = Me.Width
Me.picMain.Width = Me.Width
I have tons of code for printing this form and have really had to make things a little smaller than i would have liked so all my grids lineup side by side and be able to print the form on 1 sheet of paper. It starts by having the pic holding customer address move to the top and hide the toolbar. Then hides a lot of things and puts everything back after printing.
So i cannot make the form and controls bigger as they will not print correctly.
i wish i could do this when printing if form is too large:
Make all my print adjustments eg: this visible, that invisible grid1.left = 50
grid2 left = grid1.left, grid2.top = grid1.top+grid1.height +50 etc
Shrink everything print and put everything back and then unshrink everythin back to normal

[Ellis Dee]

Maybe you could create a second version of the form that is printer only. Then when they print the form, print the (hidden?) printer-friendly version.

Apart from the printing issue, I found that resizing based on the screen resolution produces suboptimal results. I was much happier with the results of identifying a font size based on the resolution, and then resizing based on the font size. I'm guessing this would also help deal with fixed-size controls like comboboxes.

[Ellis Dee]

Though in looking at your link, I dunno. That's a whole lotta stuff to try and auto-resize.

[si_the_geek]

...or perhaps rather than using PrintForm, do the printing yourself (as many of us do). This doesn't need huge amounts of code, as you can use the .Picture property of the controls to print them (you just need to set the positions appropriately).

Doing the printing yourself means that you can adjust the printout to the size of the paper (if you want to), and that your form does not need to be a fixed size (with Printform, your form needs to always stay the same size to print out the same).


As for the resizing, I would recommend either code like Ellis posted (as it should also work for resolutions you haven't written specific code for), or use the _Resize event to resize/move each of the controls depending on the form size.

[isnoend07]

Lately I've been working on how to handle scaling a form to match a screen resolution. While my solution doesn't yet handle advanced issues like tab controls, it works pretty darn nicely. It's even set up to automatically support regular or large fonts. All font sizes are based on screen resolution, and then the form and all controls are based on the font size.

Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

Public Sub FormLayout(pfrm As Form, pblnLargeFonts)
    Const SampleText = "Q"
    Dim sngFontSize As Single
    Dim lngWidth As Long
    Dim lngHeight As Long
    Dim lngExtraWidth As Long
    Dim lngExtraHeight As Long
    Dim sngX As Single
    Dim sngY As Single
    Dim ctl As Control
    
    LockWindow pfrm.hwnd
    sngFontSize = GetFontSize(pblnLargeFonts)
    If sngFontSize <> pfrm.FontSize Then
        With pfrm
            lngWidth = .TextWidth(SampleText)
            lngHeight = .TextHeight(SampleText)
            lngExtraWidth = .Width - .ScaleWidth
            lngExtraHeight = .Height - .ScaleHeight
            .FontSize = sngFontSize
            .Refresh
            sngX = .TextWidth(SampleText) / lngWidth
            sngY = .TextHeight(SampleText) / lngHeight
            .Move .Left, .Top, .ScaleWidth * sngX + lngExtraWidth, .ScaleHeight * sngY + lngExtraHeight
        End With
        On Error Resume Next
        For Each ctl In pfrm.Controls
            With ctl
                If TypeOf ctl Is Line Then
                    .X1 = .X1 * sngX
                    .X2 = .X2 * sngX
                    .Y1 = .Y1 * sngY
                    .Y2 = .Y2 * sngY
                Else
                    .FontSize = sngFontSize
                    .Move .Left * sngX, .Top * sngY, .Width * sngX, .Height * sngY
                End If
            End With
        Next
        On Error GoTo 0
        Set ctl = Nothing
    End If
    UnlockWindow
End Sub

Public Function GetFontSize(Optional pblnLarge As Boolean = False) As Single
    Dim lngHeight As Long
    
    With Screen
        lngHeight = .Height \ .TwipsPerPixelY
    End With
    If pblnLarge Then
        GetFontSize = lngHeight \ 66
    Else
        Select Case lngHeight
            Case 1024: GetFontSize = 12
            Case Else: GetFontSize = lngHeight \ 75
        End Select
    End If
End Function

You may notice at the end there that I hardcode font size 12 for the standard 1280x1024 fonts. (The auto-calculated size would be 12.75 IIRC.)

If you use this (or a modified version thereof) and decide that a hardcoded font size is appropriate for 1600x1200, please post here to let me know so I can include it. I can't run resolutions higher than 1280x1024, so I just have to hope they look okay.

Usage would be to maintain a global setting for whether the user wants large fonts or not, and in each Form_Load event simply call:

FormLayout Me, gblnLargeFonts

And then I'd recommend adding a Large Fonts? checkbox under Tools => Options, and if they change it iterate through the Forms collection calling FormLayout:

For Each frm In Forms
    FormLayout frm, gblnLargeFonts
Next

I have the same problem, didn't notice until a couple days ago my new monitor did not do 1600x1200 or 1152x864

I like your code my project contains 21 forms, 20 i could use it on as they do not have to consider printing. The printing issue on my main form has kinda got my hands tied as far as rezing. Looks like i'm getting another new monitor

[si_the_geek]

The printing issue on my main form has kinda got my hands tied as far as rezing.

..unless you write the printing code yourself.

At a rough guess, it would be about 30 lines of code - and there is a tutorial in our Classic VB FAQ's that explains most of it (tho it may not mention using the .Picture property of controls).

[isnoend07]

Maybe you could create a second version of the form that is printer only. Then when they print the form, print the (hidden?) printer-friendly version.

Apart from the printing issue, I found that resizing based on the screen resolution produces suboptimal results. I was much happier with the results of identifying a font size based on the resolution, and then resizing based on the font size. I'm guessing this would also help deal with fixed-size controls like comboboxes.

I will give that some thought about a second hidden form.
To look at the way my print looks now go here:
http://roofgenius.com/print_roofcalculator.htm