Re: Forms 4.5 - Coordinate System

From: Steve Cosner <stevec_at_zimmer.csufresno.edu>
Date: 1997/09/16
Message-ID: <874439848.12370@dejanews.com>#1/1

If you have users with all sorts of monitor settings, you should design your forms for the smallest monitor: the 14" using 640x480. That is what we have done here. We design ours with the coordinate system set to "character", and users use either 640x480 or 800x600 small fonts. If someone tries to switch to large fonts, (ie 1024x768 large fonts) they really get an ugly form--the boilerplate text overruns all the input items.

I have designed my QA form using Real/Inches as the coordinate system, and I think it is somewhat better than using Character.

I don't think there is anything at all that you can do to get your form to dynamically adjust its settings for different monitor settings. All you can do is design for the smaller monitors, and convince your users (especially those using "large fonts" settings) to change their display settings to something compatible with the forms.

For your forms developed under the character coordinate system, I would convert the settings to real, and adjust the screen layout so it looks good again.

On your boilerplate text, there is a little-known setting that defines where the boilerplate item is "pinned" to the canvas. When the form displays on different monitor settings, this setting affects which way the boilerplate text expands or contracts. On the canvas, select a boilerplate text item, and use Format/Drawing Options/Text to see or change the setting.

Another thing to be aware of: Your users should use the 64k colors settings on their monitor, or the colors you assign on the forms data items will all revert to the 16 base colors (the left-most area on the color pallette). The canvas background is not affected by this constraint, only the data items.

BTW: For Forms/Reports etc questions, please use the comp.databases.oracle.tools newsgroup.

Regards,
Steve Cosner

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In article <scs.8.341D49A7_at_ornl.gov>,
  scs_at_ornl.gov (Stan Stines) wrote:
>
> What is the best way to develop forms that are to be viewed by clients that
> have a hodge-podge of terminal setups. What I mean is that some of my users
> have 14 inch monitors with a particular device driver while another user may
> have a 15" and the next a 17" and another a 19" with all different
> resolutions, small fonts vs. large fonts...etc.
>
> I know I should develop with a coordinate system of REAL but I have exiting
> forms that were developed in Character which are called by all applications.
> The character forms blow off the screen as well as some of the REAL forms
> on some terminals. Some forms are small (developed on the lowest possible
> client terminal resolution) while others fit half the screen. Basically we
> developed for 800x600 resolution.
>
> Is there any special thing I should do when calling a form that was generated
> with a coordinate system of Character from a form that was developed with a
> Real coordinate system? Oh yes, the forms all were generated from a template
> developed inhouse.
>
> Thanks in advance..
>
> Stan

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Received on Tue Sep 16 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT