Ok First question about XP Pro

I'm slowly (very) getting the settings right .
Can anyone tell me how to enlarge the pop-up boxes and context box i.e. on
right clicking the mouse button.
Pretty please
TIA

Tickettyboo...

What resolution are you running at? That can affect the size of the pop up
boxes

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

1024 x 1024 Boo :)

Tickettyboo...

oh, I don't think I have ever seen a pc screen set as a square before,
maybe that is what's making it look odd?

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

Oooops, Been staring at this screen tooo much :) 1280 x 1024 Doh!!!

Tickettyboo...

LOL I thought it was an odd setting! My screen ( a flat one, not a crt
one) is set
the same, its a 17inch screen and the pop up boxes seem ok here.

You said to Anita that on ME you ran it at 1024x 768, maybe if you put it
back to that then things will look okay again?

pmj...

It's not a good idea to run an LCD Monitor at anything other
than it's "Native Resolution", which (for a 17 or 19 Inch one)
is 1280 x 1024

=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?= & $ir Vivor...

I have my 17" TFT monitor set to 1024 x 768. If I had it set to 1280
x 1024 I wouldn't be able to work with it at all but it's not causing
any problems.

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

So I understand, This is a Digimate 17" with an Analogue connector,
According to the manual it supports 8 resolutions up to the 1280 X 1024
(including 1024 X 768) so should be ok

pmj...

Well, *all* LCD Displays *will* work at various different Resolutions.

But *all* LCD Displays (regardless of Make & Model) have a "Native"
Reolution, which is the number of Pixels across (Horizontally) & Down
(Vertically) - that's a basic fact, due to the way they are made.

& if you Run the Display at any other Resolution, other than its
"Native" Resolution, which, for a 17 or 19 Inch LCD is 1280 x 1024,
that means that each "Pixel" that is on the Screen has to show a
(fractional) number of Pixels of the image that is being Displayed.

So...
For example, if you Run a 1280 x 1024 (5:4 Aspect Ratio) LCD Display
at 1024 x 768 (4:3 Aspect Ratio) that means that each Pixel on the
Screen (Horizontally) is showing .8 (8/10ths) of a Pixel of the
Image (1024/1280)

& that each Pixel on the Screen (Vertically) is showing .75 (3/4)
of a Pixel of the Image (768/1024)

Or to put it another way, each Pixel of the Image is shared across
1.25 Pixels - 1280/1024 - (Horizontally) & 1.333 Pixels - 1024/768 -
(Vertically)

So the Picture can *never* be as clear (& may also be a different
*shape*, if you run an LCD Display at anything other than its "Native"
Resolution.

You can see that, if you use the (built-in) windoze Magnifier Utility

Start>All Programs>Accessories>Accessibility>Magnifier

or...

Start>Run magnify [OK]

That's a very basic Utility (there are other better ones around
& many Graphics Cards come with their own Magnifier Utility), but
it will usefully show what's happening on the Screen, when you use
anything other than the "Native" Resolution.

The Magnifier Utility Opens up Set to a Magnification Level of 2,
but you can adjust it to other Values.

Look at the individual Pixels that make up each Letter on the Screen
& the Magnifier Utility will also (very clearly & dramatically!) show
what the ClearType (Anti-Aliasing) Settings do, to try to Help make
Text look clearer & less "Jagged".

When you look at what ClearType does to the Edges of Text Characters,
(when Zoomed in & Magnified) it looks horrible! - But when it
(ClearType) is properly tuned it can very often help make the Text
look better, on an LCD Disply.

But it does take a little bit of getting used to at first.

Unlike a CRT Monitor (which can basically be run at whatever
Resolution you want & it will support), a CRT Monitor has a "Native
Resolution" & if the Display Resolution is Set to anything else, then
it means that the Picture won't be so clear, cos the Pixels (in the
Image/Picture) have to be sort of "shared" between the actual Cells on
the LCD Screen.

Changing the Resolution may *appear* to Help - it will certainly
change the Size of what's shown - but it will lead to other probs.

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

See above^

pmj...

Yep.
But I think you haven't fully appreciated what's actually going on
between the Operating System Display Settings (& the Graphics Card
Drivers) & the LCD Display & the way that an LCD Display is *Physically*
totally different from a CRT Monitor & the way the Picture is made up
& Displayed on it works completely differently.

=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?= & $ir Vivor...

That setting w**ks fine on Terry's secondary XP box (using the same
monitor) but not on his primary one for some reason.

Tickettyboo...

Sounds like ti has nothing to do with the OS then, but with a setting that
is done differently on each machine.

Are the dpi settings different on the two machines? Does one have
additional ( specific to the graphics card) software that he may have set
differently?

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

It's ok Scratch that I fixed it, Thanks for the suggestions Boo.
Went back to using 1024 x 768 as the resolution and *fiddled* a bit more
with it :)) Now the Desktop Icons look square again :)

I don't think that XP has different sized boxes to ME, I ran ME for a

pmj...

No, but Running at the normal Resolution of 1280 x 024, for an
LCD Monitor *will* make things look a different *shape*, (Taller
& Narrower) than when Running at for example 1024 x 768...

That's cos the "Aspect Ratio" of 1280 x 1024 is 5:4 (the Width is
only 1.25 times the Height), whereas a 1024 x 768 Screen has an
Aspect Ratio of 4:3 (the Width is 1.333 times the Height)

So it's quite possible, that if you're used to using a 1024 x 768
(4:3 Aspect Ratio) Display, when you switch to a 1280 x 1024 (5:4
Aspect Ratio) Display, the things look sort of "squashed" - not only
smaller but also *narrower*

Terry, have a look at the Display Settings - in the "DPI Setting"
(Font Scaling) Section...

Display Properties>Settings>[Advanced...]
Display ---

Anita...

I have 1024 x 768 and it is ok :)

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

Yes that's what I used with ME, but since the change to XP on that setting
all the Icons look elongated

DPI Setting: Pick either Large Size (120 DPI) or "Custom Setting..."

Set the Size/Scaling you want & OK out of it (also, set the Option to
(/) Ask me before applying the New Display Settings)

OK out of it & say you don't need to Load the Font Files, cos they are
already on your Computer, at the Prompt.

You may need to Log out of windoze &/or ReBoot, for the changes to take
effect.

Try that & try it with various different Scaling Settings - that may
Help.

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

Tried all of those things and can get text sizes in things like Dialog and
OE readable through the fonts menus on them etc. in IE I have to check the
box 'ignore font styles specified on web pages' in the accessibility
options in the Internet options menu.

pmj...

Yep, but that's a very drastic way of trying to get around the
problem!!!
& doing that will (as you may already have found?0 completely screw
up many Web Pages.
:-(

The problem is no matter what I have tried the context menu boxes and text
are very small, along with the menu bars at the top of most programs I

pmj...

Ah...
In that case, you need to Adjust another (different!) Setting...

Go here...

Display Properties>Appearance>[Advanced...]

Look for the "Item: " Dropdown List...
Select "Menu" in that List.
When you do that, the "Size: " Selector Box becomes Ungreyed.
Select the Size that you want the Menus to be.
(You can also choose the *Font* Size, which is different from the
*Menu* Size & I think you'll find that it's the *Font* Size of the
Menus that you will want to change)
You can also change the Font itself (the Default is Tahoma) & whether
it's Italic &/or Bold & the Color of it.

That Setting affects the RightClick (Context) Menus & also the MenuBar
in (most) windoze Application Windows. (But, oddly enough, *not* the
Text in many of the windoze Dialog Boxes - that's Set using another,
different Option!)

tried.

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

Yes thank you, it certainly increased my knowledge some.

pmj...

& try out the other Settings (such as those Menu Settings & some of
the others) in the Display Properties as well.

You'd be surprised at how much there is to make the Screen Display
look how *you* want it, rather than how some Programmer in another
Country (& using a different sort of Screen, designed over 5 Years
ago!) thinks it should.

Remember, that you are using a modern LCD Monitor Screen (with a Native
Resolution of 1280 x 1024) but when windoze (even WinXP) was designed,
most people used (relatively small) CRT Monitors & they (often) only
had a Resolution of 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768...

So the *Default* Settings will *never* be what's best for you, or for
most people, these days.

$irVivor & =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A7ire=DFird?=...

Thanks pmj, will spend awhile trying various things and see how I get on.
Thanks for the help.

while ( till I got fed up of it falling over all the time lol) before I
got XPand really didn't see a difference in the visual stuff.
Only time I had a problem was when I got a new chair. Things just didn't
look the right size and they were all a bit hazy. Soon as I reset the
height of the chair and started looking through the right bit of the
varifocals , everything was tickettyboo!