GUI resolutions problems

Shawn

I have been creating a GUI application in C#. As I place controls on each form and view the application on different resolutions, the controls become distorted. Other articles recommend docking and anchoring, but I'm not sure how that fixes the problem. It seems that docking and anchoring simply keeps controls relative to the top, bottom, right, or left of the form. For instance, I might add a label and text box. Viewing on a different resolution causes the label and text box to overlap. This problem still happens when I anchor the controls. I am having a hard time getting my head around how docking and anchoring is supposed to solve the problem. I have done some relative positioning by grabbing the parent control size and calculating the child sizes and spacing using calculated percentages which works fine, but is very time consuming. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Another related question is how a developer tests their GUI app on different resolutions? Is there a tool for such? Thanks

7 Replies

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subrahmanyam gurram14y ago
Accepted answer
Form will have AutoScalemode propety set it to None. I think this is set default to font. if you set it to None you will have your problem solved. give me reply if it solved
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Shawn14y ago
I was still having issues even after I changed the AutoScaleMode property as recommended by subrahmanyam to "None." However, I changed the same setting to Dpi and it is working perfectly. I have tested several GUI's on several resolutions and it seems to be scaling appropriately for each resolution. Thanks again for the help.
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Shawn14y ago
Wow, I have struggled with this issue for soooo long. There are posts and complaints all across the web. And it's that simple? Incredible. I haven't verified that this fix works 100%, but it seems to have worked on everything I've checked. I would really like to know more about this setting as it doesn't seem very intuitive. I can't thank you enough. I am no longer haunted. Cheers
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Shawn14y ago
Well, I'm a little disappointed I haven't gotten any suggestions other than what brunda has provided. I have gotten my hands on a 1280x768 resolution monitor which I will use to test. I believe that there is a simple solution somewhere that others could share. C# and visual studio are too common and utilized to not have a "standard" way for dealing with resolution issues. People are too quick to suggest docking and anchoring without either knowing how they work exactly or sharing how these tools are used to solve the problem specifically. Here's to hoping a solution finds its way here.
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Shawn14y ago
Brunda, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the sizer tool simply changes the window size to the size of a maximized window of that given resolution but the pixel size is still the same as my screen. Would work great for web development, but this situation is different. Surely there is someone out there that has a recommended solution. How do developers create a commercial application to work on all resolutions? I've gotta be missing something. Maybe my perspective is all wrong. Someone fix me!!! :)
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brunda k14y ago
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4505416/helper-tool-for-testing-at-different-screen-resolution
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Shawn14y ago
Well, no responses yet, but I have a bit of an update. It seems that everyone is recommending docking and anchoring as stated before. Docking is not a solution. For instance, I have a panel on a form, two group boxes in that panel, and text boxes and labels in the group boxes. The panel isn't a problem because I can dock it. However, the group boxes cannot be docked because I don't want them snapped to any edge. I want them spaced evenly in the form. Anchoring causes improper spacing. Likewise, the labels and tb's in the group boxes overlap on certain resolutions. I now realize that if I develop on a specific resolution and then open the application in a smaller resolution, that is why my problems occur. So the easy answer is to develop in the smallest resolution that could possible be used. Others have recommended developing for a 1024x768 resolution. That seems sufficient for my project. Now, theoretically if the application is opened up on a large enough resolution, then the spacing could be bigger than desired, but I seriously don't think that is going to cause me issues. If so, I will address them as they come. However, assuming that this solution will work as I foresee, the problem still remains on how to develop for a resolution in which I don't have. Changing the resolution on my monitor isn't a solution because it simply stretches everything including the spacing causing unreliable results. So, does anyone know how to emulate a resolution for developing and testing? Or maybe someone has a better solution. This problem is very irritating. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft made such a rich and robust development environment and didn't address this problem. Oh wait, I don't find it hard to believe. It's Microsoft.
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