ColumnLayout 

Definition

ColumnLayout is a layout mechanism that can work across container boundaries, arranging content on a common grid which consists of a fixed number of columns and a variable number of rows. Embedded UI element containers are merged with their embedding container. This means that the content of both containers is arranged on the same grid, on condition that both are non-scrolling transparent containers with column layout. This even works across view and component boundaries.

A container with a layout other than ColumnLayout is treated as one big block, similar to the tab-strip, and cannot be embedded into a single grid cell. It always spans all columns and also "suspends" the layout.

The following figure illustrates the alignment of UI elements on a screen built up of different views using ColumnLayout. Using the MeltingGroupelement, you can define a container in which you can arrange more than one UI element. Inside a MeltingGroup, you can specify the width of each contained UI element explicitly. 

The colCount property defines the number of columns the Container occupies. colCount can take is represented by enumeration type WDColumnLayoutColCount and can take the following values:  one,  two,  three, four or five.

Default Behavior of Different UI Elements

UI elements occupy exactly the number of rows and columns determined by their ColumnLayoutData’s rowSpan and colSpan properties. If that information is missing, it defaults to one, except as follows:

●      All UI elements that provide a grid of their own default to span all columns and one row.

●      The same applies for all UI element containers with a layout other than ColumnLayout.

●      Table, TabStrip, Tree also default to span all columns and one row.

●      All UI element containers that do not provide a grid of their own, and use ColumnLayout default to span as many columns as indicated by their layout’s colCount property, and as many rows as needed to properly lay out their content.

●      CheckBoxGroup and RadioButtonGroupByIndex/ key have a colCount property providing the default colSpan. Their number of individual check boxes or radio buttons resp. determines the default rowSpan.

●      ItemListBox has a visibleItems property providing the default rowSpan.

●      Legend has a colCount property providing the default colSpan.

●      ViewContainerUIElement defaults to span as many rows and columns as determined by its content view’s root UI element (container). Note that this may also be an ViewContainerUIElement if you have an interface view.

●      MessageArea has a maxVisibleMessages property, providing the default rowSpan. Note that the number of currently existing messages may be smaller, but this is not taken into account in order to achieve a stable layout. It also defaults to span all columns.

●      AbstractPatternContainer, ContextualPanel, PageHeader also default to span all columns and one row.

●      BIApplicationFrame, BusinessGraphics, Gantt, GeoMap, InteractiveForm, Network, OfficeIntegration also default to span all columns and one row.

●      UI elements with visible = NONE will not occupy any grid cells.