[Ted Craven]

2. Wider Screens / Zoom Font Setting / Screen Sizer

I have reworked the various window sizing routines so that they respond to the actual width of your computer monitor. Likely this could use some more finessing, but if you have a 1280 x 1024 screen resolution, or 1440 x 900 or 1650 x 1050 or variations on these, most of the data screens (not the Data Centre) will now stretch from one side of your monitor to the other. You get the maximum screen real estate by toggling off the Sidebar (using the Sidebar toggle button in the Toolabr across the top of the software).

One of the uses of wider screens is to provide space for more columns of data on some screens (e.g. the new Live Odds on the BL/BL and later all screens). Another use is when you change the new Zoom Setting for fonts, found in the Configure window. When you zoom the fonts, say to 110%, the data will extend a bit further to the right than it did originally, and also each running line (in PPs and Analysis screens) is a little higher so less than 10 lines may be visible in any of the 2 or 3 panels you are used to.



Depending on what font size you are comfortable with, and what screen height you have available, you may be currently using 2 or 3 panels of information in each horse's Past Performances (e.g. foregoing the 3rd Analysis panel in the bottom position). You can use the Screen Sizer icons at the top of each horse's PPs to split the rest of the screen in 2 or 3 equal panels - to help experiment with the best layout for you. You can also manually resize each panel using the splitbars which you grab with your mouse and drag up or down. The positioning of the splitbars (and thus the 2 or 3 panel settings) is remembered until you change it again.

Hopefully this will help a bit with the oft reqeusted 'too-small-font' syndrome for some of our aging eyes! For example, I normally use a 22 inch monitor and have my Zoom setting at 115% or 120%, and display 3 panels of data for each horse (i.e. including the Analysis panel at bottom). Sometimes when I have more than 8 lines in the Analysis bucket, I switch to the central Analysis Tab where I can see all the lines on a full screen. But when I eliminate down to below 8 lines, I revert to watching the Analysis panel in 3rd (lowest) position on a given horse's PP page.

I note that at some Zoom settings, some words or data values get clipped, or the Visual Running Style designations no longer line-up accurately over the related Call points. I'll work on these details!

In summary re screens and fonts: previously I tried to fit all data within the confines of the lowest common denominator screen setting of 1024 x 768 (1024 pixels wide, 768 pixels high) but this is just not enough to do what I want to do with RDSS. From this point forward, you will get a MUCH better experience using the software, and be able to make use of all the available data, if you have as wide and as high a screen as possible. I would recommend 1280 x 1024 screen resolution as a minimum. I will be adding some more customization settings to each data window, so you can toggle some columns on or off, spread them out a bit if you have horizontal space, etc.