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Very few novice Microsoft Access developers
give any consideration to creating an
application that will look and function well at
a screen resolution other than the one with
which they are working. Often, it is the case
that only once an application has been deployed
and it is viewed at different resolutions does
it become apparent that this has been
overlooked. The typical complaint from users is
that the application's forms are either too big
and they have to continually use the scroll
bars or the form is tiny and all the controls
are at the top left of the screen.
Unfortunately there is no built in function
that automatically adjusts your Microsoft
Access application's forms to fit well at any
screen resolution. It is therefore best to make
a decision early in the design process as to
how you will tackle this issue.
There are a number of options available if
you want your application to look reasonable
and function well across a wide range of
display settings. The easiest option is to
design your forms at a baseline screen
resolution. The majority of Access developers
recommend that you should at least design you
forms at a screen resolution of 800 X 600 as
the majority of users would not have the
display settings any lower than this. If you
choose this option then most users will be able
to use your application without having to
scroll too much and the application will
therefore flow much more easily as a
result.
One faux pas that is often made by novice
developers is to consider using an API call to
alter the user's screen resolution when their
application is started. This is considered very
poor practice and should be avoided at all
costs.
If designing your forms at a baseline screen
resolution is not adequate for you then you
will have to look at scaling your forms using
either a third party tool or by rolling up your
sleeves and writing your own code to accomplish
this. There are a number of tools available
(including my own) for you to consider:
Form Resizer for Microsoft Access
The Form Resizer is a freeware VBA code
module that you can install and compile into
your own Access application. I originally wrote
the module, but over the years various
developers have sent in their additions and
suggestions to further improve and refine it.
However, this does require basic VBA coding
skills and is recommended for scaling up to a
higher resolution rather than down. If you're
keen and have a good level of VBA knowledge,
you can view the code yourself to see exactly
how it works and even edit the code to better
suit your specific application. Please note
that TAB controls and Option groups can be
problematic due to the way that Access tries to
keep their child controls within them whilst
resizing. For more information read the FAQs
supplied with the help files. The Access
Developer's Handbook
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The Access Developer's Handbook is
often mentioned in the Microsoft Access
newsgroups and comes highly recommended
by many developers. A compiled MDE
version of their utility can be
downloaded from http://www.developershandbook.com/downloads.htm.
However, if you wish to use this in your
application then you will have to
remember to distribute this MDE file as
well. The download also includes a
valuable PDF file providing guidance on
using the utility along with a detailed
explanation of the processes and
calculations necessary to rescale your
forms. If you opt to purchase the book
then a source code version is provided
which can be incorporated into your own
application, making distribution easier.
The source code is copyright protected so
please remember to read the book's
introduction carefully for more
information before distributing it with
your application.
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Shrinker-Stretcher
Peter De Baets' Shrinker-Stretcher is a
shareware utility, which will perform a wide
range of scaling functions if you require more
scaling flexibility than the Form Resizer or
the Access Developer's Handbook utility
provide. If you don't feel up to programming
these yourself then this utility comes highly
recommended. A demonstration version is
available from http://www.peterssoftware.com
along with a range of other Microsoft Access
utilities that you may find useful. If you opt
to use the Shrinker-Stretcher then you will
have to purchase a license for each
installation of your application or any other
application that uses it. For further
information please read the license.txt file
which is included with the shareware
download.
If you tackle this issue early on then your
end product will be easier to use for a wider
audience and will function well on the
different hardware platforms that it will no
doubt meet throughout its life. If you now find
yourself having to edit your application as you
overlooked this issue at the start then don't
worry too much as the time spent now will help
you design better and greatly improved
applications in the future.
Jamie Czernik BSc.
http://www.jamiessoftware.tk
(This article is provided "AS IS" with no
warranties or guarantees.)
Please feel free send your comments and
suggestions for improving this article for
future readers.
Downloads:
Further Help
* Form Resizer Source Code: View
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