5
$\begingroup$

I'm trying to use Dynamic and If inside Manipulate to alternate controls depending on a check box control. For example,

Manipulate[a,
 Control[{{a, 0}, {0, 1}}],
 Dynamic[If[a == 0, Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}], Control[{{abcdef, 0}, {0, 1}}]]],
 ControlPlacement -> Left]

Which gives

enter image description here

and

enter image description here

However, I would like both check boxes to automatic align whenever a is selected or not, as happens in the default case

Manipulate[a,
 Control[{{a, 0}, {0, 1}}],
 Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}],
 Control[{{abcdef, 0}, {0, 1}}],
 ControlPlacement -> Left]

Giving

enter image description here

The same thing happens if I use other control types, such as sliders. Any idea how to fix this?

Edit 1: In the check box case, the answer was already provided by user chuy, below. I am, however, also interested in the case where I have both sliders and boxes. Following the answer, I could write

Manipulate[a, 
 Column[{Control[{a, 0, 1, 0.1}], 
   Dynamic[If[a < 1, Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}], 
     Control[{{abcdef, 0}, {0, 1}}]]]}, Alignment -> Right], 
 ControlPlacement -> Left]

which gives

enter image description here

This is already pretty good, but I wonder if it's possible to get an alignment as in the following case

Manipulate[a, Control[{a, 0, 1, 0.1}], Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}], 
 ControlPlacement -> Left]

that is,

enter image description here

together, again, with Dynamic and If. In this case, the solution provided doesn't seem to work, even with Alignment set to Center or Right. I can probably play around with Spacer and Row to get what I want, but is there any shorter solution?

Edit 2: Regarding spacing, as discussed in the comment section of m_goldberg's answer, I have, for example and considering an extra slider after the check box,

Manipulate[a, 
 Dynamic@Grid[{{"a", Control[{{a, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}, 
    If[a < 1, {"abc", Control[{{abc, 0, ""}, {0, 1}}]}, {"", 
      SpanFromLeft}], {"b", Control[{{b, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}}, 
   Alignment -> {{Right, Left}, Automatic}], ControlPlacement -> Left]

that is,

enter image description here

When a=1, we get

enter image description here

There is clearly some spacing between the sliders due to {"", SpanFromLeft}, which I want to avoid. My goal is to get the natural spacing, as seen in

Manipulate[a, 
 Dynamic@Grid[{{"a", Control[{{a, 1, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}, {"b", 
     Control[{{b, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}}, 
   Alignment -> {{Right, Left}, Automatic}], ControlPlacement -> Left]

that is,

enter image description here

Any ideas?

Note: I recognise I might be deviating a bit from the original question (which was already answered with different approaches), so I will stop editing it after I solve this last problem. Either way, thanks for all the answers!

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3 Answers 3

4
$\begingroup$

You could use Grid. Like so:

Manipulate[a,
  Dynamic @
    Grid[
      {{"a", Control[{{a, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]},
       If[a < 1,
         {"abc", Control[{{abc, 0, ""}, {0, 1}}]}, 
         {"abcde", Control[{{abcdef, 0, ""}, {0, 1}}]}]},
       Alignment -> {{Right, Left}, Automatic}],
  ControlPlacement -> Left]

manip_1

manip_2

Update

The following is added to address concerns raised by the OP in a comment to this answer.

Maybe this will work for you.

Manipulate[a,
  Dynamic @
  Grid[
    {{"a", Control[{{a, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]},
     If[a < 1,
       {"abc", Control[{{abc, 0, ""}, {0, 1}}]},
       {"", SpanFromLeft}]},
     Alignment -> {{Right, Left}, Automatic}],
  ControlPlacement -> Left]

manip_3

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6
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! That looks great. Just one question, what if instead of getting the box "abcde" when a=1, I wanted to get nothing, so that there's no space occupied? I tried to include an empty list or {Null, Null} (as the 'else' option), but still these seem to occupy some space. $\endgroup$
    – sam wolfe
    Dec 7, 2019 at 2:21
  • $\begingroup$ Essentially, I guess, my question is how do I suppress a row in the grid with the Dynamic If. $\endgroup$
    – sam wolfe
    Dec 7, 2019 at 2:23
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @samwolfe. I have updated my answer to address the concern you raise in the above comments $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Dec 7, 2019 at 3:18
  • $\begingroup$ It doesn't seem to work if you have another slider after the box. The spacing is somewhat different (empty lists occupy space?). Check my updated question. $\endgroup$
    – sam wolfe
    Dec 7, 2019 at 4:04
  • $\begingroup$ In the meantime, I think I've found a solution. Just use Unevaluated[Sequence[]]. $\endgroup$
    – sam wolfe
    Dec 7, 2019 at 21:47
7
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You can use the Method suboption "ControlAreaDisplayFunction" to modify the control labels to have the same size:

Manipulate[a, 
 Control[{a, 0, 1, 0.1}], 
 Dynamic[If[a < 1, Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}], 
   Control[{{abcdef, 0}, {0, 1}}]]], ControlPlacement -> Left, 
 ContentSize -> {100, 100}, Alignment -> Center, 
 Method -> {"ControlAreaDisplayFunction" -> 
   (Replace[#, RawBoxes[s_] :> Item[s, ItemSize -> {5, 2}], All] &)}]

enter image description here

Alternatively, you can use

Method -> {"ControlAreaDisplayFunction" -> (Replace[#, 
      RawBoxes[s_] :> Pane[s, Alignment -> Right, 
        ImageSize -> Rasterize["abcdef", "RasterSize"]], All] &)}

enter image description here

Note: As far as I know the option Method and its suboptions are not documented. I came across $ManipulateMethodOptions during a spelunking expedition using ??*`*Manipulat*. Clicking on one of the results gave:

Manipulate`Dump`$ManipulateMethodOptions
{"BookmarkAnimationClipping" -> True, 
 "BookmarkDurationMultiplier" -> 1.5`, 
 "ContentAreaBackground" -> Automatic, 
 "ControlAreaDisplayFunction" -> (#1 &), "ExtraVariables" :> {}, 
 "DynamicCore" -> True, "HeuristicControllerBindings" -> True, 
 "InlineCell" -> False, "SingleEvaluation" -> True, 
 "ShowControls" -> True, "TemplateExpand" -> False}

Update: An alternative approach is to wrap control labels with Pane and use the rastersize of the longest label as the ImageSize:

is = Rasterize["abcdef", "RasterSize"];
pane = Pane[#, ImageSize -> is, Alignment -> Right] &;

Manipulate[a, 
 Control[{{a, 0, pane@"a"}, 0, 1, 0.1}], 
 Dynamic[If[a < 1, Control[{{abc, 0, pane@"abc"}, {0, 1}}], 
   Control[{{abcdef, 0, pane@"abcdef"}, {0, 1}}]]], 
 ControlPlacement -> Left, ContentSize -> {100, 100}, Alignment -> Center]

enter image description here

Update 2: To make a control invisible without adding vertical space between its neighbors:

Manipulate[a, 
 Dynamic @ Grid[{{pane @ "a", Control[{{a, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}, 
    If[a < 1, {pane @ "abcdef", Control[{{abcdef, 0, ""}, {0, 1}}]}, ## &[]], 
   {pane@"b", Control[{{b, 0, ""}, 0, 1, 0.1}]}}, 
    Alignment -> {{Right, Left}, Automatic}], ControlPlacement -> Left]

enter image description here

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2
  • $\begingroup$ Please share the guide/tutorial/documentation link where "ControlAreaDisplayFunction" is documented. $\endgroup$
    – Edmund
    Dec 7, 2019 at 3:06
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @Edmund, afaik it is not documented. I added a note re how i bumped into it. $\endgroup$
    – kglr
    Dec 7, 2019 at 4:52
5
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You can put your Controls in a Column to lay out your controls in a arbitrary way. From here, you can use the Alignment option for Column.

Manipulate[a, 
 Column[{Control[{{a, 0}, {0, 1}}], 
   Dynamic[If[a == 0, Control[{{abc, 0}, {0, 1}}], 
     Control[{{abcdef, 0}, {0, 1}}]]]}, Alignment -> Right], 
 ControlPlacement -> Left]

Mathematica graphics

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! That pretty much solves the case for the check boxes, but I'm still having problems with the mixed problem (sliders and boxes). Could you please check the edited question? $\endgroup$
    – sam wolfe
    Dec 6, 2019 at 18:51

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