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What is the best way to right align a button in a dialog window, regardless of the window's WindowSize?

Here is a resizable window to test on:

CreateDialog[
 Column[{"Here's some text text text text text text text", 
         ChoiceButtons[]}], 
 WindowFrameElements -> {"ResizeArea"}, 
 WindowFrame -> "Normal"]

I would like the button to always be right aligned.

Some unsatisfactory solutions I thought of:

  • Put the button in an Item and right align. Then the right margin is determined by the Column size which can't easily be set in pixels.

  • Put the button in a Panel, right align it, and set a fixed size on the panel. Again, the size is determined by the panel size, not the window size.

Use case:

Suppose we need to create an alternative to MessageDialog. This new function, myMessageDialog, should take the WindowSize option, and the created notebook should respond to SetOptions[nb, WindowSize -> ...] The dialog buttons should always be aligned to the right edge of the window regardless of the window size.

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  • $\begingroup$ Please explain further the problem with Item. Could you use Spacer to set a margin after converting pixels to printer's points? $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Jul 27, 2012 at 11:54
  • $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard Try it in the sample dialog I included and resize the window. The buttons don't keep on the right if you increase the window size, which would be the ideal solution. Also, as I said, the right margin is determined by the column size, which is difficult to set properly. Item sizes can only be set in ems, not pixels. I use the Item approach in the image uploader's history dialog, and on a Chinese version of Windows, the sizes are all messed up because of the unpredictability of the em width (different system font). $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Jul 27, 2012 at 11:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard I have tried to solve this problem properly many times during the past few months, and never managed to come up with a solution I'm satisfied with, and which is flexible enough to allow resizable windows. $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Jul 27, 2012 at 11:57
  • $\begingroup$ Spacer uses pixels. An em is the width of the letter M, or something like that ... $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Jul 27, 2012 at 12:01
  • $\begingroup$ According to the docs: "Spacer[w] displays as a spacer w printer's points wide." -- if Spacer works as desired you can use that to set the margin, can you not? That's one problem down if so. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Jul 27, 2012 at 12:03

1 Answer 1

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This is unrefined, but I'll put it up as a proof of concept:

CreateDialog[
  Column[{
   Row[{"Here's some text text text text text text text"}, 
     ImageSize -> Dynamic[CurrentValue["WindowSize"] /. {x_, _} :> x - 15]],
   Item[ChoiceButtons[], Alignment -> Right]
   }],
  WindowFrameElements -> {"ResizeArea"}, WindowFrame -> "Normal"
]
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  • $\begingroup$ Why do you say "unrefined"? I see nothing clumsy about it. $\endgroup$
    – DavidC
    Jul 27, 2012 at 12:41
  • $\begingroup$ @David thanks :-) I didn't test it with anything but this one example so I am not presenting this as a complete solution, just an illustration of a method. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Jul 27, 2012 at 12:43

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