Inside a WinForms application what is the best way to handle re-sizing controls to match based on screen resolution and maximizing and re-sizing the window. I have 3 columns that are set like this. LABEL TEXTBOX in each column. You could count that as 6 columns. I have tried anchoring to the right but the problem there is the textbox in column 1will overlap the next 2 columns. I have also tried docking but that does not seem to do the trick. Is there any easy way of doing this?
TL;DR: You can't without manually coding resizing logic. As a side note, you probably shouldn't be trying to do this.
In traditional WinForms there is no automatic way to my knowledge without rolling your own solution. Sean87 suggested the AutoScaleMode property, but while it is then automatic it doesn't support auto-sizing by resolution. It gives an option for scaling based on Font size settings in Windows or the DPI setting. Neither of these are directly changed when simply changing the screen resolution and, honestly, most typical users (and even probably power users) probably never modify the DPI or font size settings.
Besides, the whole point, from a basic user perspective, of increasing screen resolution is to give more virtual desktop "space" to place application windows in. True, most monitors are LCD-based now and thus have native resolutions that make changing this around mostly a thing of the CRT past. But still, the act of buying a new, larger monitor would let a typical user increase this virtual screen space so that they could see more windows on the screen simultaneously. An application that always maintains the same relative size to the screen resolution would be quite uncommon I think and goes against the expectations of most users, including even us advanced developer users.
Typically, you are to code your application to adjust its contents intelligently and usefully if the window is resized, but generally you defer to the user for managing that as it is their machine and their preference (think of it as the "my house, my rules" principle). This is also why most (all?) applications don't change window positions except when directly manipulated by the user (via dragging the window frame and such). In fact, all of this likely explains why Microsoft chose not to include any automatic sizing rule based on resolution.
You don't define what you mean by "column". Generally, you should use a TableLayoutPanel and inside each "cell", set the anchors of the controls.
you can change AutoScaleMode of the form and also auto size property of each control. And you might use splitcontainer or panels to form your columns.
Related
I have a ToolStrip control docked to the top of a Windows Form. Throughout the program, I have the font sizes on controls not specified so that they inherit from the base form. That way I can set the font size larger when the user selects "Large Font Mode" and it automatically changes throughout. The ToolStrip seems completely unaffected by this and sticks to the default size.
Is there a way have the ToolStrip inherit the base font size? Or do I need to write something to go through and find all the ToolStrips and update their .Font property?
Picture for reference:
Little update - what led me down this road is that sales people got touch-capable 1080p 10" tablets running Win8. Before making any adjustments to the display settings, the ToolStrip was an impressive 3mm tall, very difficult for anyone with large hands to hit with any accuracy. The rest of the form was difficult to interact with too. Apple has suggested 7mm for touch targets, and even Microsoft suggests 9mm. Changing the settings in Control Panel > Display up to 160% resulted in touch targets of about 6.5mm, good enough to hit without making the rest of the form too big.
Given a WPF Application running full screen, a fair amount of controls some of which will animate from off screen to center. I was wondering if there are any special ways to save on the amount of time required to optimize an application for different screen resolutions?
For example, using Blend I've setup some text, which is originally off screen to scroll into view. Now in design mode the start positions are static. If resolution changes the start positions will obviously not be correct.
So I guess to correct this, during app startup. I need to
Check resolution
Move the text box to the desired start location
Adjust the storyboard as required, so the frames all have correct co-ordinates depending on the res of the screen.
I don't mind doing all of this, but if there is an easier way please share!
Thanks
In WPF layout of controls should be made in such way, that when size of window or content changes, controls automaticaly resize/reposition themselves to reflect this change.
This is highly affected how your layout is made, especialy by using specific panels, that do layout of their child elements.
This is also made obvious by using device-independent units for sizes, margins and sometimes positions of controls. And also allows different kind of zooming and scaling of whole UI without any need to redesign the whole thing.
If you are trying to position your controls absolutely, either by using Canvas panel or margins, your are doing it totaly wrong.
In WPF, scene is measured in abstract units, not pixels, and controls are freely scaled. There should be no problems to center something, or what?
We have a WinForms application that includes controls such as picture boxes that are positioned on a form. The base application is in English.
We've translated this application to a number of different languages (French, Spanish, Danish, Greek, etc.) and most recently to Simplified Chinese. The translated application works perfectly on our operation systems (English).
One of our customers installed the application on their operation system, Windows XP in Simplified Chinese. The layout of our application is broken. Simply put, the elements are pushed to the bottom right by a factor that is proportional to the distance between the element and the top left corner. For example, an element at the top right corner in design view is pushed off screen to the right whereas the items at the bottom of the page are pushed downwards and to the right.
The application supports switching languages while in use. When the locale is en-US, there are no layout issues. When switching to Simplified Chinese, the issue appears, but only on the Simplified Chinese operating system. The screen resolution and DPI are the same.
Do you have any ideas? I'm sure it must be a simple configuration setting somewhere, but I have been unable to solve this issue.
The size of the system base font matters as well. Which is indeed something you can change on XP. This will invoke the form's auto-scaling logic, designed to ensure that the controls grow larger to fit the larger font size.
This is by design, controlled by the form's AutoScaleMode property. Don't change it, rescaling is important. Just make sure the form layout still looks good, use properties like Anchor and Dock, controls like TableLayoutPanel, FlowLayoutPanel. Or the Resize event for tricky ones.
Paste this into your form to test this logic without having to change system settings:
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
this.Font = new Font(this.Font.FontFamily, this.Font.SizeInPoints * 125 / 96);
}
I have developed a 1024 *780 resolution screen in Windows Forms, but some say that it does not fit properly at higher resolutions. Is there any way to handle this?
Is there a way to make Windows Forms applications look the same at ALL resolutions?
My recommendation is not so much to "make it look the same" on all screens, but rather to design the GUI so it scales up and down more gracefully. Layout managers, docking, and anchors are your friends in Winforms. The TableLayoutPanel is quite useful for this sort of thing. Splitters also help...
Finally, this is one of those problems that WPF sets out to solve. WPF makes extensive use of layout managers. It feels much more like Java or GTK than Winforms or even VB (old school VB).
This is the sort of thing that makes you say "there's got to be a better way."
My solution for this one time was to declare a global ScalingFactor variable that was tied to the current screen resolution. Then, the sizes of every visual element were multiplied by that factor.
So, if I designed my form for resolution A, and resolution B is 1.2x larger, the width of window A will be with * 1.2, the fonts will be fontSize * 1.2, the textbox dimensions will be dimensions * 1.2.
Not fun.
There may be 3rd party tools that you can buy and will perform this scaling.
One other thing to check before you run down any of these roads is whether it is actually the screen resolution or the dpi settings that are causing it to look bad. Usually a higher resolution will only make it look smaller, but an atypical dpi, such as when the user selects "large fonts" will wreak havoc.
You can use anchor property of item, and autoScaleMode property of form set it equals 'None'.
I'm designing some dialog boxes, and I'm having a hard time to fit everything. (and it has to fit on a single dialog box by design, so please don't tell me I should make two dialogs instead of one:))
I'm wondering what's the max size a dialog can have before being annoying for the end user. Of course it should't be bigger than his resolution, but are there any other boundaries to consider?
I'm trying to limit at 800x580 (so that it can display fine on a 800x600 screen without hiding the taskbar), but I expect my users to be on 1024x768 or better screen resolutions.
Is a 800x580 dialog box ok, or is it too big?
Have you considered using a tabbed layout?
Also, I believe the smallest main-stream screen resolution is 1024x600.
I'd say anything over that is too big. I try to stick below 1000x500.
I'm writing this on a netbook (ASUS) with resolution 1024 x 600. I've also noticed this is a defacto standard for most other netbooks too.
Another option: you could create a dialog that resizes itself automatically to fill the current desktop (except for the task bar).
It could also enforce a "flow" style layout for it's child controls. This would ensure the best use of the available space is made.
To get "flowing" in Windows forms you can use either the flow layout control or (for a richer interface) the WebBrowser control.
By the way, modal dialogs seem to be less popular as a way of user interaction these days. Especially large dialogs containing a lot of information/controls. This article has some good alternatives.
I think that if the user NEEDS to see all data on screen at the same time... and you can fit everything in 800x580... I think that it's a fine size.
If you know all users have bigger resolutions so don't struggle... that size is OK.
However... a way of showing lots of information and being able to edit it... could be a PropertyGrid control (an example here)... may be that could shrink a bit the form if you don't feel confortable with it being so big. Don't know if it a possibility given the needs of your client/user.
Just hope that no-one ever tries using your app on a media center running through a standard definition display. That's 640x480 for NTSC. I've suffered this problem with quite a few apps.
Whatever your pixel by pixel size, if it takes more than a few seconds for skilled users to complete the use of your window, then it shouldn’t be a dialog. Anything longer is annoying. You’d be asking your users to do too much work that is too easy to lose (e.g., by hitting Cancel accidentally) and too hard to re-entered (e.g., between sessions). If you have so many controls that the dialog needs to be 800 by anything, then it’s too many controls. 200,000 square pixels and 40 controls is the very most you should consider for a dialog. And tabs are nature’s way of saying your dialog is too complex.
Dialogs are for entering parameters to execute a single command on one or more data objects visible in the primary window for the dialog, which is why dialogs need to be small and simple. I suspect that’s not what you’re doing. Instead, you’re using a “dialog” to represent the main data objects and carry out a major task, not a single command.
What you want is a primary window, not a dialog, with all the support necessary for the complicated task you’ve set up for the user. That includes providing a means for users to save, retrieve, and copy their work. That means a menu bar and toolbar with all the standard commands, including help. The window should absolutely be modeless, and be resizable, maximizable, and minimizable.
Primary windows should be designed to work best at the size of most (over half) of your users’ screens. 1024x768 is generally fine for today’s laptop/desktop screens, not that you should use that much space if you don’t have to. If the user’s screen is smaller, or the user for any reason resizes your window below the design size, then scrollbars should appear to allow full access to all controls and content in the form –just like any primary window. The experience on the web indicates that scrolling is not a showstopper for forms.
Beyond that, tabs may be used in a primary window to increase the number of controls on it. You said you don’t want to hear about multiple windows, but multiple windows should be used instead of tabs if the user will be comparing data across tabs/windows. You can also fit more in a given primary window size by using a compact presentation (I describe this at http://www.zuschlogin.com/?p=42), but test such an approach on your users before committing to it.