How To Create a Form that Resizes Based on Resolution

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 5.0

SUMMARY

Screens developed under one resolution may not look the way you want them to look when you run the screens on systems with different screen resolutions. One solution is to develop several different screens under different resolutions, and run the screen that is the same as the current resolution. However, in Visual FoxPro it is possible to dynamically resize the screen and reposition objects on it based on the current resolution. This article shows by example how to do this.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Create a new form while under 640x480 resolution. Add some controls such as text boxes, command buttons, and labels to the form.

2. Place the following code in the Init event of the form and in the Init event of any container objects such as a page on a pageframe that are on the form:

         ** Assumes a screen built at 640x480
         Local lnHeight, lnWidth, lnHeightdiff, lnWidthdiff
         lnHeight=640 && The height of the original resolution
         lnWidth=480 && The width of the original resolution
         lnHeightdiff=0 && Variable to hold the height difference
         lnWidthdiff=0 && Variable to hold the width difference
         IF SYSMETRIC(1)<>lnHeight && If this is not 640x480 resolution
            lnHeightdiff=SYSMETRIC(1)/lnHeight
            lnWidthdiff=SYSMETRIC(2)/lnWidth
   
         ** You need to remark out the next four lines of code if this is
         ** in the Init of a container object such as a page on a pageframe,
         ** or any other non-form container object that has a Controls and
         ** ControlsCount property.
   
         THIS.Height=THIS.height*lnHeightdiff
         THIS.Width=THIS.Width*lnWidthdiff
         THIS.Top=THIS.Top*lnHeightdiff
         THIS.Left=THIS.Left*lnHeightDiff
   
         ** The code goes through each object, resizes and
         ** repositions it.
   
         FOR i = 1 to THIS.ControlCount
            WITH THIS.controls(i)
               .Height=.Height*lnHeightdiff
               .Width=.Width*lnWidthdiff
               .Top=.Top*lnHeightdiff
               .Left=.Left*lnWidthdiff
   
         ** You could also resize the font at this point
         ** by changing the FontSize property, perhaps to
         **IF TYPE(".FontSize") # "U"
         **    && The IF ensures the control has a FontSize property
         ** .FontSize=.Fontsize*((.5*lnWidthdiff)+(.5*lnHieghtdiff))
         **ENDIF
         ** However, some higher screen resolutions can change
         ** the appearance of fonts considerably, so testing is
         ** advised before trying that step.
   
               ENDWITH
            ENDFOR
         ENDIF
         THISFORM.Refresh
   
   

3. Run the form in a different resolution. Observe the automatic changes that are made.

REFERENCES

For more information about working with multiple screen resolutions, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q114668
   TITLE     : Using Multiple Screen Resolutions in FoxPro for Windows