Open Dental Forum

I purchased a wide screen (22") monitor, and there is a lot of dead space now in OD.


The width of the Task List is adjustable. Why not everything else?

In Chart Module:
Click Show
Double click Chart View F1
Fields Showing Width
Go Nuts

Not much better. Yes, I was able to stretch the box with the progress notes, but what about the box above it with "Enter Tx", "Missing Teeth", etc? All the tab aren't visible at once. I have to scroll from left to right. They are visible on my other computers.

I believe the only thing you can do is reduce the resolution.

I use a 29" monitor but I scale my OD box to half the width and have my imaging open on the other side so I can see xrays while I write notes

A nice thing to do with the large monitor is run OD twice at once.... one on each half of the screen.. lots of things you can do this way.

boboffice wrote:A nice thing to do with the large monitor is run OD twice at once.... one on each half of the screen.. lots of things you can do this way.

That's a really good idea. I'll sometimes run the program twice when generating reports. I didn't really think about the Idea of half & half screens. Good tip.

We all have large screens at HQ, but we use that space to keep the wiki open. It would be a nice feature request to be able to control the size of the windows (It already exists- 3004).
You'll never go back to a small monitor now, you know that, right? Wait until you add another monitor or two to the mix. It feels like you are operating a space ship

I am a brand new user and I'm having the same problem. Weird because on my old, square 19" monitor... nothing is scrunched together and all the modules are nice and big and readable. I am now using a nice wide screen Dell and it's ALL MESSED UP!!! Had support on the phone and shadowing the screen and they said there is nothing that can be done. How can I lodge a formal complaint / recommendation for improvement?

Probably the problem is your monitor/driver/video card. I have monitors ranging from 17-32" with no problems running OD.

Reduce your monitor's resolution to 1600 X 900 or less and you will have OD fill up most of the screen with a small space for your task list. Keep in mind that the vertical resolution minimum is 768.

How can there be a 'problem' with my brand new computer's video card / driver / etc? My screen looks exactly like the original poster's screen. To me, lowering my screen resolution (which I tried and it doesn't look that much better / different) is an unacceptable fix. The software should accommodate my screen and not the other way around. Again, I would like some information on how to lodge a formal complaint to get the ball rolling on making some improvements. Anyone?

What is the resolution of the monitor that you are currently having issues with?

CochiseCaring wrote:How can there be a 'problem' with my brand new computer's video card / driver / etc? My screen looks exactly like the original poster's screen. To me, lowering my screen resolution (which I tried and it doesn't look that much better / different) is an unacceptable fix. The software should accommodate my screen and not the other way around. Again, I would like some information on how to lodge a formal complaint to get the ball rolling on making some improvements. Anyone?

Your tone is one of anger. I and the other posters here are just users of the software and trying to help you resolve your problem. The software is "open source", i.e. free. As such, there's no complaint mechanism. You can make a feature request that the software accommodate itself better to the resolution on your monitor, but that process can be slow. So, let's try to fix the problem.

1. What is the current resolution of your new screen?
2. Please post a s screenshot of OD running the messed-up fashion you are seeing.

I bet it's just going to show the same screen, mainly pointing out the fact that we often waste real estate on the right hand side of main modules. This is true and we know people have been wanting us to go back through and "dock" things that comprise each window / module better but (programmatically speaking) it is a bit tricky. What is tricky is the fact that you guys aren't seeing the 7 (exaggerating a little) other ways that the module / window can be laid out. The chart module looks completely different for eCW users for example (tooth chart on the right and prog notes on the left) and so we then have to dock the window in different ways for different scenarios. Scary version is we forget that a window looks different for a specific scenario and then we render the software useless to them if we accidentally cover something up. Therefore we've been playing it safe for now. I bet we go back through little by little and carefully take care of the windows. I can almost guarantee it won't happen in one update. Unless our interns are very ambitious.

I have seen users with Mac Pros who have the resolution turned all the way up experience some issue with Open Dental. The solution was to reduce the screen resolution.
Other software programs would automatically reduce your resolution to ensure compatibility. Again, if you can post screen shots or explain what you are experiencing, we may be able to better understand where you pain point with this is.

boboffice wrote:

CochiseCaring wrote:How can there be a 'problem' with my brand new computer's video card / driver / etc? My screen looks exactly like the original poster's screen. To me, lowering my screen resolution (which I tried and it doesn't look that much better / different) is an unacceptable fix. The software should accommodate my screen and not the other way around. Again, I would like some information on how to lodge a formal complaint to get the ball rolling on making some improvements. Anyone?

Your tone is one of anger. I and the other posters here are just users of the software and trying to help you resolve your problem. The software is "open source", i.e. free. As such, there's no complaint mechanism. You can make a feature request that the software accommodate itself better to the resolution on your monitor, but that process can be slow. So, let's try to fix the problem.

1. What is the current resolution of your new screen?
2. Please post a s screenshot of OD running the messed-up fashion you are seeing.

I was a little frustrated the other day. My apologies. It just seems intuitive that OD should look even better and bigger with a nice big screen, and not seem smaller and dead space to the right. I really thought there was an area where 'complaints' and/or suggestions were supposed to be logged... which is what I was trying to do. It's good to hear back from some developers though. I'm trying to add a screenshot of my monitor's resolution (which is 1980 x 1080) and one of how OD looks... but I cannot. Under the BBcode help section it says the picture 'must already exist on the internet'. This is a problem, since the image currently only resides on my computer. It looks identical to the image posted by the original poster though.

Thank you for your reply and the replies of everyone else.

CochiseCaring wrote:...Under the BBcode help section it says the picture 'must already exist on the internet'. This is a problem, since the image currently only resides on my computer...

A lot of people use photobucket or dropbox or other image sharing sites just as an FYI.

Any updates to the issue with wide screen monitors. I upgraded from 19-20" square screens to 24" & 27" wide screens. OpenDental is harder to read (smaller text) and a lot of waisted space in the modules!
The appointment module appears overly stretched out.
We are a small office and do not utilize the task list either which I guess could fill up more of the screen.
Is there a specific feature request addressing the issue. Will it change to layout to look better for wide screen monitors?
Thanks,
Nathan

No updates other than it is currently the #2 feature request in the system. It's going to be a very complicated feature request to implement correctly and so far other features have taken precedence over this one probably due to how time consuming it will be.

Any update on this, ive put all my votes as critical and 200$ for this.
Open Dental is unusable without the ability to resize imo. The main problem for me was being able to see the day on one screen.Changing appointments to 10 minutes fixed that but isn't workable for me.

I have used 2560x1440 resolution on a 27" (monoprice Zero G 27" monitors) for years and is my favorite to work with using OD. Even though the modules besides the appointment book don't expand, you can see so much more at once without having to scroll it makes it very nice. We can also see all eight columns of chairs nicely on the appt book and still have a side bar for the task list.

Yes, it would be better if OD can be reprogrammed to scale like modern apps, but it is going to take a LOT of reprogramming I think. Maybe time for a visual makeover while this is being done for all the custom controls, buttons, toolbars, etc for a more modern look? I think would add to the OD appeal.