[Solved] Form labels cut off in smaller screen

[cathymac87]

Hi,

I have created a database in Open Office Base on my PC laptop. I've designed all the forms for data entry and created a cover page or switchboard with buttons that link to each form.

I recently copied this database across to another laptop for a colleague to use for data entry and most of the labels on the forms/buttons were curtailed - i.e. Most of the label was there but the last few letters/words/sentences are cut off and not visible.

The new laptop has a smaller screen - is this why some of the text is not showing up? Why are the labels on the forms/buttons being cut off and not just made smaller to fit the smaller screen?

How do I format the forms/buttons/labels to make sure this doesn't happen every time the database gets put on a new/different computer?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[UnklDonald418]

I suspect your colleague's computer has the screen resolution set to a lower value than the computer you used to design the form.
You have some options. One is to expand the boundaries of the label fields that are not displaying correctly or select a smaller font size for those fields.

How do I format the forms/buttons/labels to make sure this doesn't happen every time the database gets put on a new/different computer?

Design the form using the lowest screen resolution you might encounter.

[cathymac87]

UnklDonald418, thanks for your response. I tried reformatting the forms to work on a different screen resolution but the problem remains the same. My colleagues computer is working on a higher screen resolution than mine. For comparison I have also now tried it on a laptop with a much smaller screen and also a lower screen resolution. (the lower one works better - the labels are mostly intact, but there are still some that don't work, the higher resolution laptop still doesn't work - even with editing the text boxes and so on for a different screen resolution.)

Could it be something to do with my text boxes or buttons? Is there a way of linking the size of text box to reflect the amount of text it contains?

Thanks!

[UnklDonald418]

Could it be something to do with my text boxes or buttons?

Maybe if the label field overlaps other controls.
Have you tried a different font? On my installation, forms default to Segoe UI. Try something like Arial or Courier and see if they exhibit the same behavior.

Is there a way of linking the size of text box to reflect the amount of text it contains?

I'm not aware of any way short of macro programming, and that could result in some unexpected form layouts.

[cathymac87]

Having checked copies of the same database on different devices I can confirm that the problem was that on some (not others) the font was changing to a different default. Not because the font wasn't available though which is a bit puzzling. The original had all labels defaulting to Tahoma Regular 8 so I just changed the labels on the other computer to the same and they were fine. I couldn't find a way of changing the default so both computers went on Tahoma Regular 8 automatically though which made changing all the labels on all the forms a bit of a faff.

Thanks for your help! I'm marking this as solved and will look elsewhere for info on how to set a font default on Base.