How can one resize the task list in a taskFormGroup in the Backstage?

Greg Truby

MrExcel MVP
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
10,025
Okay, I have scoured the internet and I have come up empty. I am simply stumped on this one. When creating a taskFormGroup in a tab in the backstage of the Office Fluent User Interface how can one shift the divider between the task objects and the groups that contain the various and sundry controls for each task item?


The area for the tasks is too narrow, the problem is moderate in Excel 2010, but it is especially pronounced in Excel 2013. I can shift the divider between the firstColumn and secondColumn objects by changing the columnWidthPercent attribute of the tab object.


Pictorially, here is what I'm talking about:

Excel 2010 (columnWidthPercent="50")


Excel 2013 (columnWidthPercent="50")


Excel 2010 (columnWidthPercent="75")



Excel 2013 (columnWidthPercent="75")






The XML (snipped) that creates this looks like so:


Code:
...
<!-- Tab: Developer Tools -->
		<tab	id="bstabDevTools"
				insertAfterMso="TabPrint"
				label="Developer Tools"
				columnWidthPercent="75" >
			<firstColumn>
				<taskFormGroup id="tfgDevTools1">
<!-- Cat: File & Path Ops -->
					<category id="catFilePath" label="File and Path Operations">
.
.
.
<!-- Task: PathFinder -->
						<task	id="tskPathFinder"
								label="Choose Your Path"
								description="Change the set of path maps on wksPaths."
								image="ChoosePath64">
							<group id="grpPathMapper" label="Map Sets Available">
								<bottomItems>
									<layoutContainer id="layctrPathSetsV" layoutChildren="vertical">
<!-- PathSet: GabrAria -->				<layoutContainer id="layctrPathSetG_H" layoutChildren="horizontal">
											<button
												id="rxbtnGabrAriaPaths_ANN_ASSORT"
												image="SquareGreen32"
												label="GabrAria Path Set"
												style="large"
												tag="PathSet_GabrAria"
												onAction="Shared_PickPathSet_Entry_ANN_ASSORT"/>
											<layoutContainer id="layctrPathSetG_V" layoutChildren="vertical">
												<labelControl id="lblPathSetG_Hdr" label="Change path set to GabrAria Maps" />
												<layoutContainer id="layctrPathSetGSubHead1" layoutChildren="horizontal">
													<imageControl id="imgBulletPSG001" image="LtGreenBullet_9pt"/>
													<labelControl id="lblPathSetGSubHead1" label="Paths will be local hard drive."/>
												</layoutContainer>
												<layoutContainer id="layctrPathSetGSubHead2" layoutChildren="horizontal">
													<imageControl id="imgBulletPSG002" image="LtGreenBullet_9pt"/>
													<labelControl id="lblPathSetGSubHead2" label="Use this after having changed to client's path set and made a copy to send to the client."/>
												</layoutContainer>
											</layoutContainer>
										</layoutContainer>
...


I have looked up and down the heirarchy here for possible attributes that I might use here and all I see is this:


tab - columnWidthPercent (doesn't work)
firstColumn - has no attributes
taskFormGroup - no attributes look like good candidates
category - no attributes look like good candidates
group - no attributes look like good candidates
primaryItem - has no attributes
topItems - has no attributes
bottomItems - has no attributes
layoutContainer - has an "expand" attribute; but if that works, I haven't figured out how it would fit into the XML.


So... does anybody know how to move that blasted divider on the left side?
 
Last edited:
Well, I declared victory too soon. Excel 2013 is now mis-behaving once again. Everything's hunky-dory in Excel 2010. But 2013 is being a pistol! (Not just my XML for taskFormGroup, same with taskFormGroup XML I copied and pasted off the internet. So I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.)
 
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Well, I declared victory too soon. Excel 2013 is now mis-behaving once again. Everything's hunky-dory in Excel 2010. But 2013 is being a pistol! (Not just my XML for taskFormGroup, same with taskFormGroup XML I copied and pasted off the internet. So I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.)

I'm having the same experience. I'm glad I found you before I spent days banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out. I started with a sample (maybe the same one you did) from MSDN. Eventually, I used that sample verbatim and I got the same terrible results. It's hard to believe that MS would not have tested this and fixed it sometime in the last 3 years.
 
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I just found an acceptable workaround (it's not a real fix, in my opinion, but it may serve our purposes). You need to set firstColumnMinWidth and firstColumnMaxWidth on the tab. I set them to 280 to start with. Note that you have to set both attributes for it to work reasonably.
 
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Well-doggies, if'n that don' earn one big ol'

ATTABOY!

That is a DEFINITE improvement! Gonna hafta be more concise w/ my task titles as the font size in 2013 is much larger than in 2010, but that workaround does indeed shift that divider.

A tip o' the cap and a pat on the back to Mr. Dcell. (y) Well done, old chap!
 
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I know this post is as old as the hills but I have been struggling with a similar problem - where the left pane width seems to vary between machines.
It's fine on some but much narrower on others.

Setting the firstColumnMaxWidth attribute of the tab element to an absolute value (500 is good for me) solved my problem.
 
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