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:

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To save time, do you have a workbook we can look at?

Have you tried the firstColumnMinWidth attribute for the tab?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Hi Rory,


Yes, I have played with the firstColumnMinWidth attribute for the tab object. It impacts the splitter between the first and second columns, not the splitter between the task items and the various children items.


Not having a second column at all also has no impact on this splitter's position.


What's really got me frustrated is this:





You can see that the programmers at Microsoft have repositioned the splitter when they're creating taskFormGroups, so how did they do it? Their windows are wide enough.


Is there a way to upload files here? If so, I'm not seeing it? If not, what's the best way to get a sample file to you?


Thanks a bunch for looking at this. I really appreciate it.
 
Upvote 0
If it's not confidential, you can put in OneDrive/Dropbox and post a link here. If it is, PM me and I'll send you an email address.
 
Upvote 0
Let me clean out a couple of things that might be confidential-ish and then I'll use OneDrive sharing.
 
Upvote 0
Gracias, Juan Pablo. But, yeah, I have already played with both of those attributes for the task element and no joy. Thanks for the additional links, though. Always good to have another resource.
 
Upvote 0
Okay, folks, here's what we've learned so far...


Changing the column width attributes (columnWidthPercent, firstColumnMaxWidth, firstColumnMinWidth) in the task element gets you diddly squat on this. No help whatsoever.


However, the taskFormGroup element has an allowedTaskSizes attribute. Initially setting this attribute to "large" — which was the size that Excel had been displaying, still got me bupkis. BUT changing the attribute to "small" did result in Excel 2013 resizing the column where the tasks were shown. Circling back and then changing the value of the allowedTaskSizes to "largeMediumSmall" changed the icons back to the large size while maintaining the new and improved column width. The column of tasks is still not as wide as I would like, but it's better than it was.


If anyone knows of anything else to try, please post! A big «muito obrigado» to Robert Martim for his help on this.
 
Last edited:
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