I am working on windows 10 mobile app. If I design an UI for 5' device, it doesn't look good on 5.2' device. Also on emulators of different screen size show messed up UI. Is there any work around this? Or do I have to design it for every screen size?
Usually, please avoid to have fixed Width/Height for your controls. With a Grid layout, you can set columns/rows and place your controls inside each cells. This is a first level to adapt properly your interface. In addition, UWP provides AdaptiveTriggers if you want to adapt the layout based on the screen resolution (cf. https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/A-Developers-Guide-to-Windows-10/07) for additional information. Last but not least, please check Design&UI documention on https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/design.
The trick is with UWP that you can design for every screensize at once. It's just a responsive design you use (either HTML/CSS or XAML). But you have to use the right controls and settings.
Some guidance on how to design for various sizes can be found at the MSDN design page.
To create a dynamic layout with XAML, see this article. There are various panel-types you can use to do the layout (see this article). But if you really want to build a responsive UI (or change it dramatically in various sizes) RelativePanel is your friend.
My question is pretty simple, can I put a picture box in a MS Ribbon Customization (VSTO add-in). I can tell that it's not a readily available option from the designer, but can it be done from the XML? I haven't found an examples that do it.
The end goal is to have an image run out to the right of the controls in the ribbon, which would quickly allow someone walking behind a series of users see "which team they were on"/"program version" they were using.
For our new project, we are currently looking for latest "standard" layout. It is a business webapp which includes lot of master-detail screens/forms.
In our previous projects, we have extensively used horizontal tabs like JQuery UI Tabs.
I remember old version (5) of Dynamics CRM also utilised similar approach but in there latest 2011 version, they have replaced layout to include vertical tabs like this.
I also noticed SalesForce has also related information on vertical "tab" which is essentially multiple sections on long long page. I could not find much discussion about this sort of decision? Note that MS/SF has separate layouts for mobile & surely they are not expecting businesses to use tablets.
Is everyone moving towards vertical layout when screens are becoming wider? Is there any reason for this shift?
Edit:
This is what I am talking about, the question is why?
Tab Performance - CRM 4.0 vs CRM 2011
No More Tabbing – Dynamics CRM 2011
Actually Microsoft is changing again the CRM 2011 interface, starts from Polaris release they introduced new forms, take a look at this article and the included slides:
http://niiranen.eu/crm/2013/01/whats-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm-polaris-release-slides/
This release brings cross-browser compatibility including Safari on iPad, so as you can see Microsoft (and SalesForce and other companies too) adapt their products trying to provide the best UI for their customers.
Downloaded eval for Teechart for Monotouch iOS. Looks very promising. Could not find documentation though except windows help chm. Are there any docs available on the web?
Also running an example on iPad discovered that pan and zoom are extremely slow unless set to Auto.
chart3.Chart.Aspect.ZoomScrollStyle = Steema.TeeChart.Drawing.Aspect.ZoomScrollStyles.Auto;
Why?
Downloaded eval for Teechart for Monotouch iOS. Looks very promising. Could not find documentation though except windows help chm. Are there any docs available on the web?
Yes, you can download on our web site throught this link.
Also running an example on iPad discovered that pan and zoom are extremely slow unless set to Auto.
Why?
This was the reason we introduced the ZoomScrollStyles property, setting it to Auto, the chart will use the standard zoom and scroll gestures used for iOS (for most common 2D chart styles), meanwhile setting it to Manual, the chart will make use of the default zoom and scroll functionality based on the TeeChart for NET product.
I'm updating some of our legacy C++ code to use the "MFC feature pack" that Microsoft released for Visual Studio 2008. We've used the new classes to derive our application from CFrameWndEx, and are applying the Office 2007 styles to give our application a more modern appearance. This gives us gradient filled window titles, status bars etc, and the use of the ribbon toolbars.
However, our application contains some owner drawn controls, and I'd like to update these to match the color scheme used by the feature pack. Ideally I'd like to know the light and shaded toolbar colors that are currently in use.
I've had a hunt around the documentation and web and have not yet found anything. Does anyone know how to find this information out?
[Edit]
In particular we need to find out which colors are being used at runtime. You can change the appearance of your application at runtime using the new static function CMFCVisualManager::SetDefaultManager.
The following msdn page shows you what kind of styles are available, in particular the Office2007 look:
link to msdn
Have you looked in the MFC source code, which you'll find in something like
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\atlmfc\src\mfc
Looks like CMFCVisualManager offers several methods for getting color information, e.g.
CMFCVisualManager::GetSmartDockingBaseGuideColors()
CMFCVisualManager::GetToolbarHighlightColor()
Take a look at the MSDN docs for CMFCVisualManager.
Good suggestion, but unfortunately they just return various shades of grey, when currently I'm running my application with the style CMFCVisualManagerOffice2007::Office2007_LunaBlue
Annoyingly the msdn help is "under construction" so doesn't even tell you what they are supposed to be doing!
afxGlobalData contains some useful information on the current colours, brushes and fonts being used by the MFC Feature Pack. In particular I use afxGlobalData.m_clrBarFace when painting my own control bar backgrounds.
(note that I am not in front of my work PC so the above syntax isn't spot on.)
Have you tried: 2007 Office System Document: UI Style Guide for Solutions and Add Ins
?
I guess you could use your favourite image editor and pick the colors from a screen grab.
"I guess you could use your favourite image editor and pick the colors from a screen grab."
This is essentially what I'm doing at the moment, and I've defined a list of constants from which I pull out the colours. Doesn't seem very elegant though!
Looks like CMFCVisualManager offers several methods for getting color information, e.g.
CMFCVisualManager::GetSmartDockingBaseGuideColors()
CMFCVisualManager::GetToolbarHighlightColor()
Take a look at the MSDN docs for CMFCVisualManager.
#GateKiller, the OP isn't developing an Office 2007 add-in, so the UI guidelines won't really help. It's an MFC application using the Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack which allows MFC apps to take on the Office 2007 look and feel.
Good suggestion, but unfortunately they just return various shades of grey, when currently I'm running my application with the style CMFCVisualManagerOffice2007::Office2007_LunaBlue
CMFCVisualManagerOffice2007::GetTabFrameColors - the clrFace output param is grey?
Perhaps they're all masks on top of a single base hue for each theme? Assuming you can determine which color scheme is in effect with CMFCVisualManagerOffice2007::GetStyle(), perhaps you can figure out what that hue is and then do some masking with the GetxxxColor() methods.