Computer Software for Steel Professionals
Configuring the Classic Structural Material Manager Material-Entry Screen
The directions in this page apply to most users, as they are appropriate for any Structural Material Manager system Version 11.0 or higher under Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1. If you are using Structural Material Manager Version 10.1 or older, click here for alternate directions do not apply. You also click here for alternate directions if you are running Windows 95, 98 or Me, regardless of which Structural Material Manager version you have.
Assuming Structural Material Manager Version 11.0 or higher running under Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1, the directions presented here are always the first step in attempting to achieve full-screen operation of the classic material-entry screen. There are times, however, when an extra step involving a change of video driver software is needed. If that extra step proves necessary, you will be told during the course of these directions.
Proceed as follows:
- Bring up Structural Material Manager's classic material-entry screen.
- If the classic material-entry screen is in full-screen mode, hit Alt-Enter to toggle it back to a small window. It must be in a window at this point so that it has a title bar displayed.
- Right-click the title bar of the material-entry screen, and select Properties in the pop-up menu that appears. It is here that you can make changes to the entry screen's appearance and behavior.
- On the Options page of the dialog that appears, look for the Display Options group. If you see the Display Options group, proceed to the next step. If, however, the Display Options group is absent from the dialog, that is a sure sign that your current video driver does not support full-screen mode. If, and only if, that is the case, click here for instructions on changing the default video driver.
- Assuming that you did indeed find a Display Options group in the previous step, specify the full-screen option in that group.
- After making the change to full-screen mode, click Ok. A dialog box then pops up with the default choice of "Apply properties to current window only" selected, but you'll need to change this to select the "Save properties for future windows with same title" option before clicking Ok. From that point forward, whatever properties you set will automatically apply when the classic entry screen is used.
In the directions above, the Properties item is used in the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click the title bar of the classic material-entry screen. You may have noticed that, in addition to Properties, the pop-up menu also has a Defaults item. It might seem that using Defaults makes more sense than Properties, but that is not necessarily the case for this reason: the settings under Defaults can be different than those under Properties, and where they differ, those under Properties take precedence. So, always use Properties rather than Defaults.
If the changes outlined in these instructions resulted in full-screen operation, you are done; no further steps need to be performed. If, and only if, full-screen mode still cannot be displayed, click here for instructions on changing the default video driver.