Large toolbar buttons

A little known feature of ArcPad is the ability to have large buttons - both on existing toolbars and on custom toolbars. I say "little known" as I don't recall seeing a custom ArcPad application that uses large toolbar buttons!

Large toolbar buttons are especially useful when working in the field under conditions when it is difficult to tap a small button, for example when it is cold and windy - and your hands are shivering and shaking! Although one has to be careful with using up too much of the available screen when using large toolbar buttons on quarter VGA screens, this is not an issue when working with larger screens such as on Tablet PCs.
Here is an example of a single toolbar for an application that only needs to add and view data:


So how do you specify large toolbar buttons? The TOOLBAR element, in ArcPad XML, has a buttonsize attribute. The following ArcPad default configuration file (ArcPad.apx) hides the standard toolbar, and creates the toolbar in the above screenshot:

<arcpad>
<config>
<toolbars>
<toolbar name="main" visible="false">
<toolbar name="browse" visible="false">
<toolbar name="draw" visible="false">
<toolbar name="TOOLBAR4" caption="" visible="true" image="" buttonsize="2">
<toolbutton command="openmap">
<toolbutton command="modezoomin">
<toolbutton command="modepan">
<toolbutton command="zoomfullextent">
<toolbutton command="layers">
<toolbutton command="exit">
</toolbar>
</toolbars>
</config>
</arcpad>

Note that the default buttonsize is 1. Custom toolbars can be defined in either the default configuration file, or in ArcPad applet files.

The easiest method to create ArcPad XML code for custom toolbars is using ArcPad Studio. However, you can also use your favorite text or XML editor to create new toolbar definitions or to edit existing toolbar definitions.

So, do yourself or your field users a favor and provide them with toolbars with large buttons! Large buttons are much easier to use.