Question:
What are the best practices for using Act! with large Dots Per Inch (DPI) settings on computers and Windows based tablets with high resolution screens?
Product Details:
Product Family: Act!
Product: Act! Pro, Act! Premium
Version: All
Answer:
Note: This information is provided as a convenience. Act! does not provide support for display configuration. If you require additional assistance with display configuration settings, contact your IT department or Microsoft for assistance.
Act! is not designed to function on screens that run at DPI settings higher than 96DPI, however this article will provide some best practices that may enable you to overcome most obstacles involved with using Act! on a computer which has large DPI settings (especially on computer displays which have high resolution screens), in the event that you do not wish to, or are not able to lower your DPI settings back down to 96 DPI. For more information about how DPI affects Act!, refer to the following knowledgebase article:
Why does Act! experience problems using high Dots Per Inch (DPI) settings?
Answer ID Why does Act! experience display problems using high Dots Per Inch (DPI) settings?
Disable DPI Scaling for the Act! program only
Disabling DPI Scaling for the Act! program only may allow the program to load as if the DPI settings are set at a lower setting. To do this:
- Ensure Act! is closed
- On your desktop, right click the Act! icon and choose Properties
- Click the Compatibility tab
- Check the option to Disable display scaling on high DPI settings
- Click Apply
Increase Mouse Pointer Size
Using Act! can be made easier on a high resolution display by increasing the size of your mouse pointer. You can find information on increasing your mouse pointer size in the following Microsoft article:
Make the mouse easier to use
Note: Not all pointer types in Act! will scale up with these settings. For example, the Slider and Column Resize pointers will remain their default size.
Lower the Resolution
- Right-click your desktop, then choose Screen Resolution
- Click the Resolution Drop-down, then select 1280 x 800 from the list
- When prompted whether you would like to keep the changes, click Keep changes
- Click OK
Increase Tab Font Sizes in the Act! Layouts to 10 or Larger
If you are using a touch screen, it is recommended that you increase the font sizes on for your tabs to 10 or larger to make them easier to select when using large DPI settings.
- In Act!, click Tools > Design Layouts, then click the layout you wish to edit the tab font sizes for
- In the Layout Designer, click View > Properties Window
- In the Properties window, click the drop-down and choose Tabs
- In the Properties window, under appearance change the font size from 8pt to 10pt or larger
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have increased the size of all the tabs
- Click the save icon at the top of the screen to save it
- If necessary, repeat these steps for any layouts that you use
Set Display Scaling to 150% (Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 only)
Setting the Display Scaling to 150% and enabling the option to choose one scaling level for all displays will allow you to make your text larger, while causing minimal impact on the other elements on the screen. For information on how to do this, refer to your Windows documentation. Once you have changed the Display setting, reset your Act! Preferences file by following the steps in the following knowledgebase article:
How to rebuild the Act! Preferences file
Answer ID How to rebuild the Act! Preferences file
Increase Font Sizes for List Views and Grids
Adjusting the font sizes for List views and grids that appear with in Act! can make It easier to see the elements in the program. For more information, refer to the following knowledgebase article:
How to Customize Colors, Fonts, and Grid Lines on Views, Lists, and Tabs in Act!
Answer ID How to Customize Colors, Fonts, and Grid Lines on Views, Lists, and Tabs in Act!
Once the fonts have been resized, you may wish to resize the column widths so that your data will fit. You can accomplish this by hovering your mouse pointer over the column separator in the header, waiting for the double arrow pointer, then click and drag to the desired width. Alternatively, if you wish to automatically size it, you can double click the separator to fit the column size to match the data it contains.