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WOW Forms and Windows 7 Compatibility

  • February 1, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 0 views
D

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 31 January 2011]

Hi

Has anyone experienced a problem with Forms with a Dialog border (Property "Border=Dialog") showing differently in Windows 7 to XP/Win2000/98 etc?

The problem we are seeing is an additional 4-5 pixels appearing at the bottom and right hand side of the form - making the form appear unbalanced and poorly designed! The additional pixels do not show in the WOW designer, only at runtime.

The following screenshots show a form (with a yellow background) and a Group control filling all the form in the designer. When run in Windows 7, the result is completely different to the Designer and other Windows versions. You will notice that the runtime appears to add a small border (1 pixel) around the form in XP too - but at least it is balanced!

licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../wowdesigner.gif
licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../xp.gif
licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../win7aero.gif

We have, literally, hundreds of these forms throughout our system and they look rubbish on Windows7 ! Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a way get over it?

Many thanks

Nigel

    4 replies

    D

    [Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 31 January 2011]

    Hi

    Has anyone experienced a problem with Forms with a Dialog border (Property "Border=Dialog") showing differently in Windows 7 to XP/Win2000/98 etc?

    The problem we are seeing is an additional 4-5 pixels appearing at the bottom and right hand side of the form - making the form appear unbalanced and poorly designed! The additional pixels do not show in the WOW designer, only at runtime.

    The following screenshots show a form (with a yellow background) and a Group control filling all the form in the designer. When run in Windows 7, the result is completely different to the Designer and other Windows versions. You will notice that the runtime appears to add a small border (1 pixel) around the form in XP too - but at least it is balanced!

    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../wowdesigner.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../xp.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../win7aero.gif

    We have, literally, hundreds of these forms throughout our system and they look rubbish on Windows7 ! Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a way get over it?

    Many thanks

    Nigel
    I don't use RM/COBOL, but from what I can see, it appears Windows 7 is making the window bigger than it was designed, thus it add the extra yellow border. I would suggest researching Windows 7 and see if you can find some sort of compatibility switch or find the reason why it's drawing your windows larger than they were designed.

    Hope that helps,

    Paul
    D

    [Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 31 January 2011]

    Hi

    Has anyone experienced a problem with Forms with a Dialog border (Property "Border=Dialog") showing differently in Windows 7 to XP/Win2000/98 etc?

    The problem we are seeing is an additional 4-5 pixels appearing at the bottom and right hand side of the form - making the form appear unbalanced and poorly designed! The additional pixels do not show in the WOW designer, only at runtime.

    The following screenshots show a form (with a yellow background) and a Group control filling all the form in the designer. When run in Windows 7, the result is completely different to the Designer and other Windows versions. You will notice that the runtime appears to add a small border (1 pixel) around the form in XP too - but at least it is balanced!

    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../wowdesigner.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../xp.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../win7aero.gif

    We have, literally, hundreds of these forms throughout our system and they look rubbish on Windows7 ! Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a way get over it?

    Many thanks

    Nigel
    I'm also unfamiliar with RM/COBOL but one thing you might try is running your app in Windows XP compatibility mode on Win 7. I'd try it and see if the dialogs look any better.

    NB: I'm not speaking for my employer--just making a suggestion.

    --
    Onorio
    D

    [Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 31 January 2011]

    Hi

    Has anyone experienced a problem with Forms with a Dialog border (Property "Border=Dialog") showing differently in Windows 7 to XP/Win2000/98 etc?

    The problem we are seeing is an additional 4-5 pixels appearing at the bottom and right hand side of the form - making the form appear unbalanced and poorly designed! The additional pixels do not show in the WOW designer, only at runtime.

    The following screenshots show a form (with a yellow background) and a Group control filling all the form in the designer. When run in Windows 7, the result is completely different to the Designer and other Windows versions. You will notice that the runtime appears to add a small border (1 pixel) around the form in XP too - but at least it is balanced!

    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../wowdesigner.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../xp.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../win7aero.gif

    We have, literally, hundreds of these forms throughout our system and they look rubbish on Windows7 ! Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a way get over it?

    Many thanks

    Nigel
    Hi

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    I have researched Win 7 form handling and cannot find any documented issues. Products like VB, Access, etc do not seem to experience the same problem - it seems to be fairly specific to RM/WOW.

    XP Compatibility was a good idea, but unfortunately did not make any difference to the way the form was rendered.

    A "programmatical" solution has been offered on the old Liant forum that does fix the problem (on WOW you have a form "style" property - changing this away from the default to "popup" does fix it), but it is going to involve change several hundred (possibly thousands) of forms in our system. Unfortunately, the WOW IDE does not hold its forms in a "text" format, so this cannot be done by a program, awk, etc.

    Anyway, thanks again for you suggestions, it is appreciated.

    Cheers

    Nigel

    D

    [Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 31 January 2011]

    Hi

    Has anyone experienced a problem with Forms with a Dialog border (Property "Border=Dialog") showing differently in Windows 7 to XP/Win2000/98 etc?

    The problem we are seeing is an additional 4-5 pixels appearing at the bottom and right hand side of the form - making the form appear unbalanced and poorly designed! The additional pixels do not show in the WOW designer, only at runtime.

    The following screenshots show a form (with a yellow background) and a Group control filling all the form in the designer. When run in Windows 7, the result is completely different to the Designer and other Windows versions. You will notice that the runtime appears to add a small border (1 pixel) around the form in XP too - but at least it is balanced!

    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../wowdesigner.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../xp.gif
    licensing.mardak.co.uk/.../win7aero.gif

    We have, literally, hundreds of these forms throughout our system and they look rubbish on Windows7 ! Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a way get over it?

    Many thanks

    Nigel
    have you tried disabling Aero completely?
    And on the compatibility mode of your application (runcobol.exe) have you tried setting it to disable themes?

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