Screen Settings

[Sheela]

How could I set the screen settings to 800x600 pixels when the database opens, as right now each workstation has it's own individual display settings.

 

Can anybody help me !

[CobaltSky]

If you are talking about changing the monitor resolution of a multi-scan monitor automatically, then I'm afraid FileMaker does not provide an out-of the box option to achieve this. It might be possible with a third-party script or tool (eg AppleScript on MacOS), but any such solution would be platform - and possibly also system version and/or hardware configuration specific.

 

On the other hand, if you're talking about changing the size of the FIleMaker window to be appropriate for an 800 x 600 display, then you are in luck. This can be achieved by:-

 

1. Placing an object on a 'View-As-Form' layout (it can be transparent or made the same color as the background so as to be invisible) at the lower right extremity of the screen area you wish to display.

 

2. Adding steps to a start-up script to;

[*]Go to the said layout

[*]View as

[*]Toggle Status Area [show or hide - your choice]

[*]Toggle Window [Zoom]

[*]Go to your intended starting layout

(then proceeding on with whatever other set-up steps you want in your start-up script...)

This will size your window appropriately whenever the database is opened. If you want it to always be positioned at the top left of the screen (some people have tidy minds and like their databases to reflect this ) then add a Toggle Window [Maximize] step immediately before the 'Zoom' step.

[Sheela]

Sorry, I am a little confused with the windows display settings and the window in filemaker.

 

My question is if the video mode/desktop settings is set at 1024x786 or whatever will this affect the settings within the database..

 

The problem is my screen settings in windows is at 800x600 and some of the workstations are 1024x 768 so the file appears sort of compressed in the other workstations and I am trying to stick to 800x600 for every workstation.

 

Is this what we are talking about in the script??

[Fenton Jones]

Unless your database is the only program they are running, they will probably not want to downgrade their screen pixel size.

If, however, they are running a 17" monitor at 800x600, they should switch to 1024x768, unless they really need BIG text.

 

If you fix the size of your windows with an object (which can just be tiny square in lower right corner of a form view, or anything, line at the bottom of the Header, etc. reaching the far right of a list view), then your layout will render fairly well (especially on a Mac, on Windows you may have to Maximize first before Toggle).

 

If one person has a 15" screen, set to 800x600, and another has a 17" screen, set to 1024x768, they will more or less the same "magnification," ie., the text and objects will be about the same size.

 

The problem is if someone has a laptop (or an iMac), with a 15" screen, but set to 1024x768. Their text will be kind of small. But they're probably used to that.

 

You can also create 2 layouts in FileMaker (for each), and check for the screen resolution, with Status(CurrentScreenWidth).

But that is a lot more work. I'd only do that for really crowded layouts.

And it will only partly solve the text size problem for people with laptops. You don't want to make it so big that it looks blocky on desktop machines.

 

There's only so much you can do.

[Sheela]

Got it, thanks......