Can a dialog box be larger than the desktop?

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:10 pm

Does anyone know of a way to make a dialog a size that is larger than the desktop? If my desktop resolution is 1162x864 and I try creating a dialog with a width of 1200 and a height of 1000, the resulting dialog can only be 1164x876. I suppose technically that is a few pixels bigger, but its not what I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Dick

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:24 pm

Not quite sure I follow what you are saying. Yes, you can make a dialog bigger than the screen size. The dialog will be the size as defined in Width and Height. If you make Width and Height 2000 the dialog box will be 2000x2000 pixels, regardless of your screen resolution. Try it.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:37 pm

I've been trying all morning... also spent much time in usenet and the web looking for answers.

when I run this script my dialog size will be 1164x876 even though width and height are set to 2000.

I thought that I used to be able to do this so I went to an NT 4.0 box with this script as an executable and the dialog size becomes 812x612.

Maybe Macro Scheduler version related? I'm using 8.0.4.

Code: Select all

Dialog>Dialog1
   Caption=Dialog1
   Width=2000
   Height=2000
   Top=0
   Left=0
   Label=test,500,370
EndDialog>Dialog1

Show>dialog1
GetActiveWindow>window_title,X,Y,W,H
mdl>%window_title%,%X%,%Y%,%W%,%H%

Label>end

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:48 pm

Interesting. Just tried it on 8.1 and 9.0. Width is reported as 2000, but height is 1036. I confirmed the width and height with Winspector Spy. Not sure why the height is truncated. Will see what I can find out.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:54 pm

Hmm. Seems there is a limit to the height of a window - and it's not just Macro Scheduler. Try this:

- Open Notepad
- Don't maximise it but make it largeish
- Now drag it so that it drops off the screen - i.e. drag the title bar down to near the bottom of the screen.
- Now try making it bigger by dragging the top edge upwards.
- At a certain point Windows won't let you go any further.

Wait up - Actually I'm getting the same thing with the width. Ok, I have two monitors. Maybe that's why I can make the dialogs 2000 wide. So, perhaps you're right. The max width and height of a window is defined by your screen res and the number of monitors you have. I didn't know that!

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:57 pm

Although this is a .Net reference it refers to system.windows so I assume it's a system limitation:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... .size.aspx

"The maximum value of this property is limited by the resolution of the screen on which the form runs. The value cannot be greater than 12 pixels over each screen dimension (horizontal + 12 and vertical + 12)."

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:05 pm

Marcus
As I was looking into this prior to posting it appeared that this might be a microsoft imposed limitation. However, as I stated previously, I believe that this once worked in Macro Scheduler. And in my searches in usenet, I read posts that suggested there are some programs that can somehow circumvent this limitation. So I thought that you might know something about the issue and how to get around it.

This is not terribly important to me and no one else seems to have noticed so you could conclude that its not important to the Macro Scheduler community.

Thank you,
Dick

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:09 pm

Yes, I think the min and max can be changed by intercepting the call to GETMINMAXINFO. But we've never done that, so as far as I am aware Macro Scheduler will always have been subject to the standard limits. Perhaps Microsoft changed default behaviour from earlier operating systems. Perhaps you saw a different behaviour on an older OS?

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:12 pm

I've tried Nt 4.0 and XP. The only other OS I've had while a Macro Scheduler user is 2000. I'll have to find one and try it this afternoon.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:18 pm

I'll try 2000 now ...

... nope, same thing.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:21 pm

I must have been dreaming then... not the first time I've been wrong

Rain · Post by **Rain** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:50 pm

I just came across this topic.
About a year ago or so I was able to make dialogs larger than the desktop but now when I try the same script the size of the dialog is limited to the desktop size. I think one of the many Windows security updates is causing the restriction. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m going to try my old script next time I reformat and before installing any Windows updates, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s if I remember of course.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:36 pm

Rain,

I might be able to save you some trouble. Although I still feel that I used to be able to create a dialog box larger than the screen size, I can't be sure. What I do know is that my WinXP Pro computer has not had a windows update installed on it since sometime before May of 2003. (That was when a windows update screwed up some of my Access 97 functionality and I stopped installing the updates.) I'm also sure that the script that I believe could create oversized dialogs, was not started until sometime in 2004. After a little online investigating, I'm convinced this is a Microsoft restriction and not something that is caused by or controlled by Macro Scheduler.

Later,
Dick

pgriffin · Post by **pgriffin** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:29 pm

What is the business reason to have a window larger than the desktop?

Seems like buying film that won't fit your camera...

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:43 pm

In my case I was displaying a bitmap in a dialog that I wanted to cover the entire screen and at the time I didn't know how else to do it. The dialog had to be large enough that the title bar at the top could be moved up out of sight and the scroll bar on the right had to be off the screen so that it didn't show.

Later,
Dick