BabelZilla - How to resize a xul pref dialog according to every language

How to resize a xul pref dialog according to every language

Written by Goofy

Monday, 04 June 2007

How to resize a xul pref dialog according to every language

The problem

Preferences Dialog is not resizable (see Bugzilla #122345), so it happens every now and then that the size of the window can be perfect for English language but not so perfect

for other languages, once translation is done.
Here is a simple example:

This is the original en-US dialog

English language pref dialog

This is the French version, same size. One sentence is longer, so the last word on the right is sadly cut, as well as the right-hand side frame border.. French pref dialog trimmed

A simple solution

Important: there is another solution provided by teo for more advanced coders. Just read this thread http://www.babelzilla.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=3229

All you have to do is to add a style attribute to your prefwindow and make the width a localizable entity. Translors will have to determine the optimum value to give to this entity in their locale, they will adjust after some tests so that it matches perfectly for their own language.

Here is one code example

in prefs.xul

<!DOCTYPE prefwindow SYSTEM "chrome://attachmentextractor/locale/attachmentextractor-prefs.dtd" >
<prefwindow type="prefwindow"
        id="attachmentextractorPreferences"
        xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"
        windowtype="attachmentextractor:preferences"
        title="&attachmentextractor.settings.windowtitle;"
        style = "width:&attachmentextractor.settings.width;; height: 55em;">

in attachmentextractor-prefs.dtd in en-US locale

<!ENTITY attachmentextractor.settings.width "80ex">

80 ex is not enough for French language, it needs "100ex" in the fr-FR locale, so now the sentence is complete

Note about units

Width (or height) can be set in various units and is generally in px or em, but it seems it is recommended to use ex. See this article in Mozilla Knowledge Base

a Goofy mini-howto

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 June 2007 )

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