General Form Layout

IFS Enterprise Explorer is designed to be used on a display with 1024 x 768 resolution. Subtracting space for the Windows Task Bar, leaves 1024 x 739 pixels for IFS Enterprise Explorer itself. In order to get a good user experience in this size developers should design forms to fit into the default form size (see below) without the use of scroll bars.

Although the framework will provide automatic scroll bars for forms that do not fit, this is intended only as a fall back for users using 800x600 resolution (this is still quite common for people with weak eyesight) or when users have resized IFS Enterprise Explorer to only use a small part of the display size.

• Place the controls on a form in a general left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.
  
   
• Design all normal forms to fit 770 x 470 pixels. This is the area that remains in IFS Enterprise Explorer when menu bar, tool bar, navigator and context pane are showing on a 1024 x 768 screen.
  
   
• For a very small number forms where users can be expected to have larger displays, a maximum form size of 1000 x 670 pixels can be used. This is the area available when IFS Enterprise Explorer is run in full screen mode (F11) on a 1024 x 768 screen. Examples of these forms might be Call Center, Project Information, Gantt Scheduling, Customer 360 degree view. 
  
   
• The maximum allowed size for any form, under any circumstance, is hence 1000 x 670. With the experience for our users in mind it is however vital that all "bread and butter" forms are designed to fit into the default form size of 770 x 470.
• Forms that only contains a list (grid or table control) should not have any margins - the list should fill out the entire form.
• Forms that contain two or more visible controls should always have a margin around all controls, even around list and tab controls.
  
• In forms with tabs, try to make the header area above the tabs as wide and low as possible. The reason for this is that in IFS Enterprise Explorer the default form size is only 470 pixels high. If forms use a lot of height just for the header, then there will be very little space left for the content inside the tabs. This situation will get even worse when there is a "tab in tab" form.