RE: [Sheflug] Micro$oft Twips (Another Bodge)

[(Ted Harding) <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 19-Jan-02 Alan Wilson wrote:
> Sure some of you have heard this one before, but I feel for it at work
> today.
> 
> I spent all afternoon just trying to get Access 97 put put a label in
> the exact X,Y coordinates I told it too, only it was having none of it.
> Then is a last ditch attempt I tried the on-line help and guess what,
> Micro$oft don't use Centimeters, millimetters or inches or anything
> else sensable to possition things on the screen.  They don't even uses
> pixcels, no as always they have to be different, they use Twips !!!
> 
> Ok after lots of coffee I came around to the fact that I had to use
> Twip so then I did a search in google to find out what a twip is and
> guess what its so simple, there are 576 Twips in a Centermeter or 20
> Twips in a pixcel so all my X and Y coords on the screen have to be
> mutliplied by 576 before Access makes sence of it !

Hmmm. I don't know who invented the name "twip" (could be MS,
I suppose). But the above is not quite right.

20 twips = 1 point = 1/72 inch (as now standard for printers)
( => 567 twips/cm: 1440/2.54 = 566.93 )

(so could be that "twip" is short for "twentieth of a point" and
may even have been "twp" in Olde English).

The number of twips in a pixel depends on the size of the pixel,
and may have to be different in the X and Y directions.

At

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q210590

MS provide a little conversion program for Access applications,
which basically implements a division and a multiplication.
At the start of the description, they specify

  ACC2000: How to Convert Twips to Pixels (Q210590)
  The information in this article applies to:
           Microsoft Access 2000 

  Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability,
            and multiuser skills.

Hmmm again.

Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding [at] nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
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Date: 19-Jan-02                                       Time: 09:57:53
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