Test application lay-out for low resolution (winform)

Question

Our firm is investigating in acquiring 22" monitors for our development team. The only current issue is that our users will be using smaller screens.

We tried using a screen-grid tool (gridmove and nvidia's utils), but they are not entirely realistic.

How do you test winform application layouts on a resolution lower then your screen's optimal resolution without constantly switching resolutions?

Answer 1

Most applications I have worked on have been using a menu. In those cases I have added a menu with items like 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1400x900, etc. This special menu is only added to program in debug mode.

#if DEBUG
AddDebugMenu(mainMenuStrip);
#endif

private void AddDebugMenu(MenuStrip menuStrip) {
  ToolStripMenuItem debugMenu = new ToolStripMenuItem("Debug");
  menuStrip.Items.Add(debugMenu);
  debugMenu.DropDownItems.Add("1024x768", null, delegate { Size = new Size(1024, 768);});
  debugMenu.DropDownItems.Add("1280x1024", null, delegate { Size = new Size(1280, 1024);});
}

This of course if the AddDebugMenu() is placed in the main form class.