I have a  test program that permits display of the form (preview) at full size using a PictureBox on
the screen.  So far so good - it works.

What must I do to permit the user to enlarge the display if something is too small to be read and
they want enlarge it?

What must I do to permit the user to reduce the display and view the entire page on the screen?

Thank you,
Jim Y

Here is some of the code:

===============================

Option Explicit

    'switch to determine whether Query or Wedding Query
    Public gEventType As Integer
    'switch to determine whether screen display or printer copy
    Public gScrnPrntr As String         'use Screen or Printer to identify

Private Sub Form_Load()

    'gEventType     0 for Wedding Query, 1 for General Query

    'NOTE Since the form is in twips, the PictureBox must be positioned
    '   and sized using twips.  In the PictureBox, inches are used.
    '   Try 1.2 enlargement and 0.6 reduced size (full screen) for form

    Pic.ScaleMode = 5           'inches in the PictureBox, Form1 is twips
    Pic.Width = 8.5 * 1440      '12,240 twips wide
    Pic.Height = 11 * 1440      '15,840 twips high

    Pic.Top = 0.25 * 1440       '360 twips wide
    Pic.Left = (Screen.Width - Pic.Width) / 2

    With VScroll1
        .Left = Pic.Left + Pic.Width    'Position VScroll1 on right of Pic
        .Top = 0            '1440
        .Height = 10360     '7200
        .Max = 60           '60% instead of 100% to not go up too far
        .LargeChange = 30   'two clicks to scan full page - 60/30=2
        .SmallChange = 6    'ten clicks to scan full page - 60/6=10
    End With


Private Sub mnuQueryDisplay_Click()

    Pic.Cls

    gEventType = 1          'for General Query
    gScrnPrntr = "Screen"   'use Screen or Printer

    Call QueryForms         'in ModDisplay

End Sub


End Sub

==================================================

    Public Sub QueryForms()

    Dim strPrinted As String        'date & time form was printed - reserved
    Dim strPrntStrng As String      'combined items on one line
    Dim intEventType As Integer     'Zero (0) for Wedding, One (1) for General
    Dim strType As String
    Dim Obj As Object               'Form1.Pic  or  Printer

    <SNIP>

'Get Date and time of printing
    strPrinted = "Printed: " & Format(Now, "ddd, mmm, dd, yyyy") _
                & "   " & Format(Now, "hh:mm AM/PM")

    If Form1.gScrnPrntr = "Screen" Then
        Set Obj = Form1.Pic
    ElseIf Form1.gScrnPrntr = "Printer" Then
        Set Obj = Printer
    Else
        Exit Sub
    End If

    'Get Query/Wedding Query switch
    intEventType = Form1.gEventType

    'Draw border around the page - 0.62 inch border all around
    Obj.DrawWidth = 4
    Obj.Line (0.62, 0.62)-(7.88, 10.25), , B

    'Print Company Name, Adress and Phone numbers
    Obj.FontName = "Arial"
    Obj.FontSize = 12
    Obj.FontBold = True
    Obj.CurrentX = 0.69
    Obj.CurrentY = 0.66
    Obj.Print "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZQWE"

    <SNIP>

There are at least three (probably more than three) different ways of doing
this, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. A simple
StretchBlt of your picture box image is one way that would enable you to
make the size anything you want, but I would definitely advise that you
should *not* use that method in your specific case (too much loss of detail
because of the very limited resolution of the original "image"). Of the
other two methods that I have in mind, one would permit very easy scrolling
of a "magnified or enlarged" image (in much the same way as you are
presumably currently crolling the full size page) and the other one would
make such scrolling more difficult (as far as the amount of code is
concerned) to accomplish. Much depends on how much magnification you wish to
provide. The "harder to implement" method would permit almost limitless
magnification, but if you are happy with up to two or three times the width
and two or three times the height then you can use the easier method. That's
quite a large magnification when you see it in practice, and it makes it
possible to fairly comfortably read text as small as 3 points in size. In
fact, even a 200 percent magnification makes it possible to read 4 point
text, and such a magnification (using the method I have in mind) would
require a contiguous block of memory of only about 13 megabytes for your
autoredraw picture box, an amount that is always available even on very low
end systems.

Basically what you do is create your picture box and set its ScaleWidth to
8.5 and its ScaleHeight to 11 and you use coordinates for your drawings and
text as though those units are inches (even though they are not). The actual
size of the picture box (Width and Height) does not matter. It can be almost
anything you wish. If you want it to display the page at "full size" (as you
currently seem to be doing) then you also set the Width and the Height to
8.5 and 11 respectively, first making sure that you set it's "container's"
Scalemode, at least temporarily, to vbInches. The "container" could either
be a Form or perhaps another Picture Box (I would suggest the latter). You
will of course need to maintain a variable of type Single (let's call it
"magnification") and in this case (full size page) you would set
"magnification = 1".

If instead you wanted a "200 per cent magnified page" you would set the
picture box Width and Height properties to 17 and 22 respectively, again
making sure that it's "container's" ScaleMode is vbInches when you do so but
you still set the ScaleWidth to 8.5 and the ScaleHeight to 11. Then you set
the variable "magnification" to 2. You will, of course, have to provide the
user with a facility to "scroll the very large page" within its container so
that he can see the various parts of it, but I notice that you already seem
to have provided such a facility for the vertical direction so it obviously
won't be any trouble for you to do the same for the horizontal direction as
well.

Alternatively, if you wanted a "smaller than full page" size (so that you
could fit the entire page onto the screen regardless of the user's display
size and resolution) you would set the picture box Width property to 8.5 *
0.7 and its Height property to 11 * 0.7 and you would set the variable
"magnification" to 0.7 also. Again, you would set the ScaleWidth to 8 and
the ScaleHeight to 11 (you never set these to values other than those).
Obviously I've chosen the value "0.7" at random. In practice you would
calculate that value such that the page would be displayed in full on
whatever size and resolution display is currently in use.

Because the ScaleWith is always 8.5 and the ScaleHeight is always 11 you can
draw your lines and circles and boxes and paint your pictures and metafiles
and things using those coordinates just as though they were real inches. The
only thing you need to do differently is the font size for whatever text you
write on the page (because the font size in VB is always set in "points",
and a point is a point, no matter what you set the ScaleWidth and
ScaleHeight to). So, when printing your text you should set the font size in
accordance with the current contents of the "magnification" variable (which
was set to 1, 2 or 0.7 in the above three examples). So, for example, if you
needed 12 point text  you would use Obj.Font.Size = 12 * magnification.
There is a very slight catch to this (isn't there always!) because the
actual font sizes of True Type fonts are limited to "whole pixel" values,
and the size you get will be the size you ask for to the nearest whoole
pixel (which is very, very close to the desired size on a typical high
resolution printer and only "quite close" to the desired size of the rather
limited resolution of a typical monitor). However, unless you are printing
stuff that required clean and straight "fully justified text" you won't have
much problem with that. There are, of course, ways to achieve nice clean
fully justified text that justifies at exactly the same character on the
printer as it does on the screen, but I don't think you'll need to get into
that sort of stuff for your own specific application.

Anyway, that's the "bare bones" of it. I won't have time to write any actual
code for you (under orders to wash all the "green stuff" off the top of our
little motorhome today!) but I'm sure you will be able to code it yourself,
looking at the stuff you have already done.

Other people here may have other suggestions for you of course. This is just
one option for you to consider. The big advantage of this method is that the
print routines for your picture box and for your printer can be exactly the
same (obviously you would set the variable "magnification" to 1 when
printing to the printer). There may be a few points I've missed (in a bit of
a rush at the moment) but if there are I'm sure others here will point them
out for you.

Mike

.. . . by the way, one thing I forgot to mention is that when you send your
output to the printer you should leave its ScaleWidth and ScaleHeight
properties alone. Just set its ScaleMode property to vbInches (and your
"magnification" variable to 1) and leave it at that. Also, as you may or may
not be aware, most printers have "unprintable margin" into which they simply
cannot deposit ink (even printers that can print "full bleed" pages usually
default to the standard "unprintable margin" setting unless you change it).
Basically, as far as VB is concerned the "page" (when using US Letter size
8.5 x 11 inch paper as you are doing) is a "drawing rectangle" which usually
measures 8 inches wide and sometimes 11 inches high and sometimes less than
that. Also, the individual "unprintable margins" (top, left right and
sometimes bottom) are different sizes on different printers (even when using
the same size paper). The printable area (which VB "sees") is therefore a
rectangle that is slightly smaller than the page and whose top left corner
is positioned somewhere near (but not actually at) the top left corner of
the physical page. As far as VB is concerned, location (0, 0) is the top
left corner of this printable rectangle (not the top left corner of the
physical page). The actual size and position of this printable rectangle is
different on different printers. This makes it impossible to accurately
position stuff on your page with any reliability (unless you do something
about it). VB does not expose these measurements for you, but you can easily
get at them using an API routine. The following routine will sort it all out
for you. If you call it (passing 0, 0, as its parameters) it will
effectively "tell" VB that location (0, 0) is exactly at the top left corner
of the physical page for whatever printer happens to be currently in use.
Thereafter you can forget all about it and simply regard your US Letter
paper as an 8.5 x 11 inch rectangle where location (0, 0) is exactly at its
physical top left corner and everything will be positioned exactly where you
want it to be. Try it out.

Mike

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function GetDeviceCaps Lib "gdi32" _
(ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal nindex As Long) As Long
Private Const PHYSICALOFFSETX As Long = 112
Private Const PHYSICALOFFSETY As Long = 113

Private Sub SetPrinterOrigin(x As Single, y As Single)
With Printer
  .ScaleLeft = .ScaleX(GetDeviceCaps(.hdc, PHYSICALOFFSETX), _
    vbPixels, .ScaleMode) - x
  .ScaleTop = .ScaleY(GetDeviceCaps(.hdc, PHYSICALOFFSETY), _
    vbPixels, .ScaleMode) - y
  .CurrentX = 0
  .CurrentY = 0
End With
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Printer.ScaleMode = vbInches
SetPrinterOrigin 0, 0 ' top left corner of physical page
' Now you can print your stuff accurately positioned
End Sub

Oops! Slight "typo" in my first reply. I said:

Alternatively, if you wanted a "smaller than full page" size (so that you
could fit the entire page onto the screen regardless of the user's display
size and resolution) you would set the picture box Width property to 8.5 *
0.7 and its Height property to 11 * 0.7 and you would set the variable
"magnification" to 0.7 also. Again, you would set the ScaleWidth to 8 and
the ScaleHeight to 11 (you never set these to values other than those).

.. . . and I meant to say:

Alternatively, if you wanted a "smaller than full page" size (so that you
could fit the entire page onto the screen regardless of the user's display
size and resolution) you would set the picture box Width property to 8.5 *
0.7 and its Height property to 11 * 0.7 and you would set the variable
"magnification" to 0.7 also. Again, you would set the ScaleWidth to 8.5 and
the ScaleHeight to 11 (you never set these to values other than those).

(Note the "set the ScaleWidth to 8.5 and the ScaleHeight to 11" instead of
"set the ScaleWidth to 8 and the ScaleHeight to 11).

Sorry about that. Didn't want to cause confusion.

Mike

Show quote Hide quote Sometime ago you gave me code about the printer border.  Since then I include it in my programming.
Generally, I check for a 0.50 inch minimum border and warn the user if their printer requires a
larger border.  So far no one has had a problem.  From my own printers I know that border is not
always uniform about a page and can be as small as 0.15 inch.  I am guessing 0.50 inch to be safe
for most, if not all, printers

I have had a *busy* couple of days and not able to do too much with this preview code.  I have some
of it resolved using your comments.  I think it is up to my experimenting right now.  (Nice thing
about retirement, NO pressure to get it done!  No deadline to meet.)  If I have any questions, I
will get back to you.

I appreciate your comments.

Thank you,
Jim Y

Well not all printers, but certainly most of them. I've got a Citizen
Printeva printer which needs a slightly larger bottom (or is it top?) border
than that, about 0.6 inches as I recall (I haven't used it in ages). But 0.5
should be plenty for the top and bottom border on most printers, and about
0.25 for the left and right borders (depending on paper size).

Exactly. I'm in the same "retired" club myself ;-)

Thanks. Let me know how you get on.

Mike

I think I have it all resolved with 8 point text, .625, 1.00, and 1.375 magnification.  There is one
thing that I have not been able to resolve and that is having the HScroll across the bottom of the
screen.  It is working above the PictureBox and not a problem.  I am curious as to how I can get it
across the bottom.  The 2 or 3 things that I tried failed.  Do you have any suggestions?

I have made the scroll bars appear only on the views that need them and changed the MAX value to
agree with the size displayed.  As I said, I like to experiment with the code.  When the program
first starts, Pic2 displays "Query" at *full* size (1) and I give the user the option to change it
to see the full sheet (.625) or enlarge it (1.375).  Using those magnifications makes it easy with
the 8 point text size and displays at nice sizes.  I am sure that as I experiment with the program,
I will be able to consolidate some of the code and not waste space with my typing.

Thank you,
Jim Y

==============================================

Public gScrnPrntr As String         'use Screen or Printer to identify
    'Size switch
    Public gScale As Single


Private Sub Form_Load()

    'gEventType     0 for Wedding Query, 1 for General Query
    'gScale         multiplier for screen display of form

    'NOTE Since the form is in inches, the PictureBox(es) are in inches

    'PictureBox scale
    Pic.ScaleMode = 5           'inches in PictureBox
    Pic2.ScaleMode = 5          'inches in PictureBox

    gScale = 1          'Begin with actual size display

    Pic.Width = 8.5
    Pic.Height = 11
    Pic.ScaleWidth = 8.5
    Pic.ScaleHeight = 11

    Pic.Top = 0.25
    Pic.Left = (Screen.Width / 1440 - Pic.Width) / 2

    Pic2.Top = 0
    Pic2.Left = 0
    Pic2.Width = 8.5
    Pic2.Height = 11
    Pic2.ScaleWidth = 8.5
    Pic2.ScaleHeight = 11


    With VScroll1
        .Left = Pic.Left + Pic.Width    'Position VScroll1 on right of Pic
        .Top = 0
        .Height = 7.2
        .Max = 60           '60% instead of 100% to not go up too far
        .LargeChange = 30   'two clicks to scan full page - 60/30=2
        .SmallChange = 6    'ten clicks to scan full page - 60/6=10
    End With

    With HScroll1
        .Left = Pic.Left                'Position HScroll1 above Pic
        .Top = Pic.Top - HScroll1.Height
        .Width = Pic.Width
        .Max = 100
        .LargeChange = 40
        .SmallChange = 5
    End With

    HScroll1.Visible = False

End Sub

Private Sub HScroll1_Change()

    Pic2.Left = -(HScroll1.Value / 100) * ScaleWidth

End Sub

I thought I should explain further about the top/bottom HScroll1 position question.  If I locate it
on the bottom of Pic, HScroll1 is off screen.  If I make Pic height fit the screen, the height of
Pic2 is distorted.  Is there a method in which HScroll1 can remain at the bottom of the screen
without being affected by the vertical scroll of Pic or the size of Pic?  I am satisfied with the
way I currently have it working, just curious at this time.

Thank you,
Jim Y



Show quoteHide quote

That's because you're making the container picture box (pic) to big. It
should never exceed the height or width of the client area of the Form. You
have to look on pic as a simple "look through window" such that when you
look through it you can see the main page (pic2) "behind the window". Pic2
is usually much larger than pic, and you scroll the viewport using the
scroll bars. Have a look at my previous message. Also, here is the code with
additional stuff to set the height. Obviously there is more work to be done
yet, but the following code shows how to properly size and position both
picture boxes and the scroll bar(s). I haven't yet actually put in any code
to control the scroll bars so that they scroll the page, but I'm sure you
will be able to do that yourself. Run the following code and you should be
able to run the Form in its Maximized state and also as a user resizable
Form and the picboxes and the scroll bars should adjust accordingly as the
user resizes the Form. Also, it should work on all display resolutions and
dpi settings.

Mike

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32" _
  (ByVal hWndChild As Long, _
  ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long
Private gScale As Single
Private hScroll As Boolean
Private vScroll As Boolean

Private Sub SetPage()
Me.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic.BorderStyle = vbFixedSingle
pic.BackColor = vbBlue
pic2.AutoRedraw = True
pic2.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic2.BorderStyle = vbBSNone
SetParent pic2.hWnd, pic.hWnd ' if you haven't done it in IDE
pic2.Move 0, 0, 8.5 * gScale, 11 * gScale
pic2.ScaleWidth = 8.5 ' always this value
pic2.ScaleHeight = 11 ' always this value
pic.BorderStyle = vbBSNone
HScroll1.TabStop = False ' stop the annoying flashing
VScroll1.TabStop = False ' of the scroll bars
If Me.ScaleWidth >= (pic2.Width + VScroll1.Width) Then
  ' we can set the container to the same width as pic2
  ' and we do not need a horizontal scroll bar
  pic.Width = pic2.Width
  pic.Top = 0
  hScroll = False
  ' also we might as well put the scrollbar at the
  ' right hand edge of the Form
  VScroll1.Left = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  VScroll1.Top = 0
  ' and we might as well centre the "page" in what's left
  pic.Left = (Me.ScaleWidth - pic.Width - VScroll1.Width) / 2
Else
  ' size pic so that both pic and the vertical scrollbar
  ' fit across the available width of the Form and we
  ' do need a horizontal scroll bar
  pic.Width = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  pic.Top = 0
  hScroll = True
  ' put the scrollbar at the right hand edge
  VScroll1.Left = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  VScroll1.Top = 0
  ' and put the container at the right hand edge
  pic.Left = 0
End If
'
'
If hScroll = False Then
  ' set container height to use all available height
  pic.Height = Me.ScaleHeight
  HScroll1.Visible = False
  VScroll1.Height = pic.Height
Else
  ' allow room for horizontal scroll bar
  If (Me.ScaleHeight - HScroll1.Height) > 0 Then
    pic.Height = Me.ScaleHeight - HScroll1.Height
  End If
  HScroll1.Visible = True
  HScroll1.Left = 0
  HScroll1.Top = pic.Height
  HScroll1.Width = pic.Width
  VScroll1.Height = pic.Height
End If
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim s1 As String, n As Long
gScale = 1 ' show page at 100 per cent
SetPage
pic2.Font.Name = "Times new Roman"
pic2.Font.Size = 12 * gScale
s1 = "Just some sample text"
For n = 1 To 100
  pic2.Print s1
Next n
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Resize()
SetPage
End Sub

Placing a picturebox in another isn't the same as setting the parent. Unless
I'm missing something, you really should be using the picturebox's Container
property.

Set pic2.Container = pic

Nope. You're not missing anything, Ken. It's me that is missing something
;-)
You are of course correct. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm sure that Jim
will see your reply and will amend the example code accordingly. Time for a
rum and Coke®, methinks ;-)

Mike

Show quote Hide quote I amended the line above, added the code to display the reduced and enlarged views and set the
scroll bars to not display wasted space.  I appreciate the step-by-step notes.

Thank you Mike and Ken for the help,
Jim Y

I think you may have slightly misunderstood my original answer Jim. In your
code (in the specific example you posted) you appear to be setting the size
of *both* picture boxes to 8.5 x 11 inches in order to display your page at
"actual" size (gScale = 1). That's not the way it should be done.

For gScale = 1 ("actual size", or what MS Word calls "zoom to 100 per cent")
the size of the "contained" picture box (pic2 in your example) should be 8.5
x 11 inches. Also, its BorderStyle (in all cases) should be vbBSNone. The
Borderstyle of its container (pic in your example) should normally be
vbFixedSingle. So, the first part of your code should be something like:

gScale = 1 ' (the value 1 represents 100 per cent)
Me.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic.BorderStyle = vbFixedSingle
pic.BackColor = vbBlue
pic2.ScaleMode = vbInches
pic2.BorderStyle = vbBSNone
SetParent pic2.hWnd, pic.hWnd ' if you haven't done it in IDE
pic2.Move 0, 0, 8.5 * gScale, 11 * gScale
pic2.ScaleWidth = 8.5 ' always this value
pic2.ScaleHeight = 11 ' always this value

Note that in the above code I have also given the container picture box a
blue background and the "contained" picture box a white background (the
page). This makes it easy to spot errors in your coding, because if your
code is done correctly then you should never see any of the blue, even when
you move the scroll bars.

So what we've got now is a container picture box (pic) that contains another
picture box (pic2). Pic2 represents the printer page. The size of pic2 is
8.5 x 11 inches in this case (because we set gScale to 1) and the ScaleWidth
/ ScaleHeight of pic 2 is also 8.5 x 11 inches (note the ScaleWidth /
ScaleHeight of pic 2 is *always* 8.5 x 11 inches regardless of the value of
gScale, because pic2 always represents the full page). Notice that we have
not yet set the size of the container (pic). It doesn't really matter how
big the container is, as long as it is no larger than the pic2. The
container (pic) is merely a "window" through which we can "look" and through
which we can see all or part of the page (pic2).

Now we need to set the size of the container (pic) to a sensible value. It
needs to fit *entirely* into the client area of the Form and it also needs
to leave a little room for the vertical scroll bar (and also the hoprizontal
scroll bar if we need one). The container (pic) is *always* smaller than the
client area of the Form.

The next thing to do is have a look at your Form and see how much room there
is for pic. This of course depends on how large your Form currently is,
which depends on all sorts of things including the display resolution (800 x
600, 1024 x 768 etc), whether or not the Form is maximized, the current
Windows dpi setting various other factors). This is all easily checked
simply by using the Form's ScaleWidth property. So you check the ScaleWidth
of the Form and and if the Form is wider than the combined widths of pic2
and the vertical scroll bar then you set pic Width (the container picbox)
exactly equal to the width of pic2 and you do not need a horizontal
scrollbar. However, if the Form's client area is less wide than the combined
Widths of pic2 and the vertical scrollbar (which it almost certainly will be
on a display running at 800 x 600 pixels) then you set pic2 Width to the
same width as the client area of the Form (less the width of the vertical
scrollbar), and you do need a horizontal scrollbar. A slight added
complication is that the Width of pic (the container) includes its borders.
You can either automatically account for this by adding suitable code or you
can simplify things and also make pic (the container) a borderless picture
box. For simplicity, let's use the latter option. So in addition to the
above code you would also have the following:

pic.BorderStyle = vbBSNone
If Me.ScaleWidth >= (pic2.Width + VScroll1.Width) Then
  ' we can set the container to the same width as pic2
  ' and we do not need a horizontal scroll bar
  pic.Width = pic2.Width
  pic.Top = 0
  ' also we might as well put the scrollbar at the
  ' right hand edge of the Form
  VScroll1.Left = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  ' and we might as well centre the "page" in what's left
  pic.Left = (Me.ScaleWidth - pic.Width - VScroll1.Width) / 2
Else
  ' size pic so that both pic and the vertical scrollbar
  ' fir across the available width of the Form
  pic.Width = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  pic.Top = 0
  ' put the scrollbar at the right hand edge
  VScroll1.Left = Me.ScaleWidth - VScroll1.Width
  ' and put the container at the right hand edge
  pic.Left = 0
End If

Notice that we have not yet set the height of the vertical scroll bar or the
width or position of the horizontal scrollbar (if we need one) or the height
of the container picture box (pic). So, the next thing we need to do is to
check how high the client area of the Form is (Me.ScaleHeight) and using
that information in conjunction with the current value of the gScale
variable and decide how high we should make the container picture box. I
think that maybe it might be wise to leave that for the moment though
(actually I'm in a rush to go sdomewhere). Read this stuff carefully and get
it all working and then post back when you're ready for more.

Mike

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