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Forum Update on Tuesday, May 27th 2025

Making QPushButtons span multiple columns in QGridLayout

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  • Q Offline
    Q Offline
    Qtstarter121
    wrote on last edited by
    #4

    When I select a QPushButton in my QGridLayout , I only see the ability to change the size of the button, which I can't even do due to the layout. So I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Unless you're saying do something with the layout but there's no way to drag anything with that either.

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    • Q Offline
      Q Offline
      Qtstarter121
      wrote on last edited by
      #5

      Actually I don't even think editing the span is the correct thing to do because I can't really edit the span to 1.5 columns can I? Technically that's the only way I'd be able to split the width of the 2 buttons evenly across 3 columns.

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      • Q Offline
        Q Offline
        Qtstarter121
        wrote on last edited by
        #6

        Yeah it doesn't work. One of my buttons ends up taking almost 2 columns and the other one disappears if I edit the ui file like this :

        <item row="8" column="0" colspan="1.5">   // button 1
        
        <item row="8" column="1" colspan="1.5">   // button 2
        
        
        Gojir4G 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • Q Qtstarter121

          Yeah it doesn't work. One of my buttons ends up taking almost 2 columns and the other one disappears if I edit the ui file like this :

          <item row="8" column="0" colspan="1.5">   // button 1
          
          <item row="8" column="1" colspan="1.5">   // button 2
          
          
          Gojir4G Offline
          Gojir4G Offline
          Gojir4
          wrote on last edited by
          #7

          @Qtstarter121 You cannot specify a column span of 1.5. It must be an integer. But you can achieve this by adding a column and then update column span of the other buttons.

          Another simple solution is to place and resize all your buttons as they should look in the final UI from the designer and then to select the parent (container of the buttons), and click on "Layout in a Grid" . It should make the job for you.

          Q 1 Reply Last reply
          1
          • Christian EhrlicherC Offline
            Christian EhrlicherC Offline
            Christian Ehrlicher
            Lifetime Qt Champion
            wrote on last edited by
            #8

            You must not edit the ui file by hand. Just select a widget, click and hold on a handle on the side (not the edge) and move it to the adjacent cell.0_1526324017223_Screenshot_2.png

            Qt Online Installer direct download: https://download.qt.io/official_releases/online_installers/
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            Q 1 Reply Last reply
            2
            • Gojir4G Gojir4

              @Qtstarter121 You cannot specify a column span of 1.5. It must be an integer. But you can achieve this by adding a column and then update column span of the other buttons.

              Another simple solution is to place and resize all your buttons as they should look in the final UI from the designer and then to select the parent (container of the buttons), and click on "Layout in a Grid" . It should make the job for you.

              Q Offline
              Q Offline
              Qtstarter121
              wrote on last edited by Qtstarter121
              #9

              @Gojir4 So in terms of adding a column, the only way I see that working is when I add another button to one of the rows at the end, then it auto-creates a column for every row( you can't just add extra columns only to one row). So let's say I do that anyway, for the last row I suppose then I could specify in the ui file a column span of 2 per button like I did previously in the <item ... >, but the for the other rows which only contain 3 buttons, the column span now has to change to 4/3 which again doesn't work...

              With regards to solution number 2, I'm thinking this might be the only viable solution to get this working inside Qt Designer. I would need to break my current layout, resize my buttons manually the way I want and then re-arrange them in a grid again ( if I understood you correctly).

              Q Gojir4G 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • Christian EhrlicherC Christian Ehrlicher

                You must not edit the ui file by hand. Just select a widget, click and hold on a handle on the side (not the edge) and move it to the adjacent cell.0_1526324017223_Screenshot_2.png

                Q Offline
                Q Offline
                Qtstarter121
                wrote on last edited by
                #10

                @Christian-Ehrlicher I'm assuming by the handle you mean those little purple squares. I did try holding that and moving to the adjacent cell, and all that happens is that the button simply moves to the adjacent cell which isn't what I want. I need to have two buttons in the last row occupy the space of three buttons in every other row, so somehow make the last row have only 2 columns or add a column somehow to the end of only the last row and make each button span 2 columns ( don't think I can do that).

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • Q Qtstarter121

                  @Gojir4 So in terms of adding a column, the only way I see that working is when I add another button to one of the rows at the end, then it auto-creates a column for every row( you can't just add extra columns only to one row). So let's say I do that anyway, for the last row I suppose then I could specify in the ui file a column span of 2 per button like I did previously in the <item ... >, but the for the other rows which only contain 3 buttons, the column span now has to change to 4/3 which again doesn't work...

                  With regards to solution number 2, I'm thinking this might be the only viable solution to get this working inside Qt Designer. I would need to break my current layout, resize my buttons manually the way I want and then re-arrange them in a grid again ( if I understood you correctly).

                  Q Offline
                  Q Offline
                  Qtstarter121
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #11

                  @Qtstarter121 hmm so I tried breaking my existing layout, and in my row with only 2 buttons I tried resizing those two buttons, selected everything and re-arranged in a grid layout but unfortunately it still forces a third column to be created in the last row.

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                  0
                  • mrjjM mrjj

                    Hi
                    as mr @Christian-Ehrlicher says
                    alt text

                    Q Offline
                    Q Offline
                    Qtstarter121
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #12

                    @mrjj I wasn't able to see the animation before for some reason. I'm going to try this and get back to you.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • Q Qtstarter121

                      @Gojir4 So in terms of adding a column, the only way I see that working is when I add another button to one of the rows at the end, then it auto-creates a column for every row( you can't just add extra columns only to one row). So let's say I do that anyway, for the last row I suppose then I could specify in the ui file a column span of 2 per button like I did previously in the <item ... >, but the for the other rows which only contain 3 buttons, the column span now has to change to 4/3 which again doesn't work...

                      With regards to solution number 2, I'm thinking this might be the only viable solution to get this working inside Qt Designer. I would need to break my current layout, resize my buttons manually the way I want and then re-arrange them in a grid again ( if I understood you correctly).

                      Gojir4G Offline
                      Gojir4G Offline
                      Gojir4
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #13

                      @Qtstarter121 said in Making QPushButtons span multiple columns in QGridLayout:

                      @Gojir4 So in terms of adding a column, the only way I see that working is when I add another button to one of the rows at the end, then it auto-creates a column for every row( you can't just add extra columns only to one row). So let's say I do that anyway, for the last row I suppose then I could specify in the ui file a column span of 2 per button like I did previously in the <item ... >, but the for the other rows which only contain 3 buttons, the column span now has to change to 4/3 which again doesn't work...

                      Is that possible to show us some drawing of what you are trying to achieve ? It will help a lot
                      Is it something like that ? (sorry I cannot post image)

                      ┌----┬-----┬----┐
                      ├----┴--┬--┴----┤
                      ├----┬--┴--┬----┤
                      └----┴-----┴----┘
                      

                      @Qtstarter121 said in Making QPushButtons span multiple columns in QGridLayout:

                      With regards to solution number 2, I'm thinking this might be the only viable solution to get this working inside Qt Designer. I would need to break my current layout, resize my buttons manually the way I want and then re-arrange them in a grid again ( if I understood you correctly).

                      Yes that's what I meant. but it seems it didn't work according to your reply to yourself :)

                      Q 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • Gojir4G Gojir4

                        @Qtstarter121 said in Making QPushButtons span multiple columns in QGridLayout:

                        @Gojir4 So in terms of adding a column, the only way I see that working is when I add another button to one of the rows at the end, then it auto-creates a column for every row( you can't just add extra columns only to one row). So let's say I do that anyway, for the last row I suppose then I could specify in the ui file a column span of 2 per button like I did previously in the <item ... >, but the for the other rows which only contain 3 buttons, the column span now has to change to 4/3 which again doesn't work...

                        Is that possible to show us some drawing of what you are trying to achieve ? It will help a lot
                        Is it something like that ? (sorry I cannot post image)

                        ┌----┬-----┬----┐
                        ├----┴--┬--┴----┤
                        ├----┬--┴--┬----┤
                        └----┴-----┴----┘
                        

                        @Qtstarter121 said in Making QPushButtons span multiple columns in QGridLayout:

                        With regards to solution number 2, I'm thinking this might be the only viable solution to get this working inside Qt Designer. I would need to break my current layout, resize my buttons manually the way I want and then re-arrange them in a grid again ( if I understood you correctly).

                        Yes that's what I meant. but it seems it didn't work according to your reply to yourself :)

                        Q Offline
                        Q Offline
                        Qtstarter121
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #14

                        @Gojir4 I want something like this:

                        0_1526390746422_Capture.PNG

                        mrjjM Gojir4G 2 Replies Last reply
                        0
                        • Q Qtstarter121

                          @Gojir4 I want something like this:

                          0_1526390746422_Capture.PNG

                          mrjjM Offline
                          mrjjM Offline
                          mrjj
                          Lifetime Qt Champion
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #15

                          @Qtstarter121
                          Hi
                          You can use one of the red layouts from Layout section to the left. ( not right click)
                          alt text

                          Q 1 Reply Last reply
                          2
                          • Q Qtstarter121

                            @Gojir4 I want something like this:

                            0_1526390746422_Capture.PNG

                            Gojir4G Offline
                            Gojir4G Offline
                            Gojir4
                            wrote on last edited by Gojir4
                            #16

                            @Qtstarter121 What about that ? This is what I tried to explain in one of my previous post.

                            alt text

                            Sorry for quality of the gif, I'm not an expert in video conversion :)

                            mrjjM Q 2 Replies Last reply
                            2
                            • Gojir4G Gojir4

                              @Qtstarter121 What about that ? This is what I tried to explain in one of my previous post.

                              alt text

                              Sorry for quality of the gif, I'm not an expert in video conversion :)

                              mrjjM Offline
                              mrjjM Offline
                              mrjj
                              Lifetime Qt Champion
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #17

                              @Gojir4
                              Cool. I didn't know it would just allow it!
                              Ps. if u need gif anims, this just works
                              http://www.screentogif.com/

                              Gojir4G 1 Reply Last reply
                              2
                              • mrjjM mrjj

                                @Gojir4
                                Cool. I didn't know it would just allow it!
                                Ps. if u need gif anims, this just works
                                http://www.screentogif.com/

                                Gojir4G Offline
                                Gojir4G Offline
                                Gojir4
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #18

                                @mrjj Thanks for the tip.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • mrjjM mrjj

                                  @Qtstarter121
                                  Hi
                                  You can use one of the red layouts from Layout section to the left. ( not right click)
                                  alt text

                                  Q Offline
                                  Q Offline
                                  Qtstarter121
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #19

                                  @mrjj I did that, instead of selecting all buttons and right click then layout in grid, I instead dragged a Grid Layout from the left panel and tried inputting buttons one by one into the layout, but once I finish the first row, the layout is fixed to define 3 columns, so I still can't only have 2 columns in the last row... there will always be that one column to the right that is empty.

                                  0_1526397104546_Capture2.PNG

                                  shaded region represents an empty cell that always exists no matter how I drag my buttons around.

                                  mrjjM 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • Q Qtstarter121

                                    @mrjj I did that, instead of selecting all buttons and right click then layout in grid, I instead dragged a Grid Layout from the left panel and tried inputting buttons one by one into the layout, but once I finish the first row, the layout is fixed to define 3 columns, so I still can't only have 2 columns in the last row... there will always be that one column to the right that is empty.

                                    0_1526397104546_Capture2.PNG

                                    shaded region represents an empty cell that always exists no matter how I drag my buttons around.

                                    mrjjM Offline
                                    mrjjM Offline
                                    mrjj
                                    Lifetime Qt Champion
                                    wrote on last edited by mrjj
                                    #20

                                    @Qtstarter121
                                    I i used both a GridLayout and a red layout i put as last row.
                                    But it seems @Gojir4 made it do it without extra layout.
                                    we just need him to tell what he clicks after selecting them all
                                    as video is faster than my eye :)

                                    Gojir4G 1 Reply Last reply
                                    1
                                    • Q Offline
                                      Q Offline
                                      Qtstarter121
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #21

                                      I'm confused as to what a "red layout" is. Isn't selecting a Grid Layout from the left panel, and selecting all buttons and right click-> Layout > Layout in Grid the same thing?

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • mrjjM mrjj

                                        @Qtstarter121
                                        I i used both a GridLayout and a red layout i put as last row.
                                        But it seems @Gojir4 made it do it without extra layout.
                                        we just need him to tell what he clicks after selecting them all
                                        as video is faster than my eye :)

                                        Gojir4G Offline
                                        Gojir4G Offline
                                        Gojir4
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #22

                                        @mrjj @Qtstarter121 I'm clicking on "Layout in a grid" :)
                                        alt text

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        1
                                        • Gojir4G Gojir4

                                          @Qtstarter121 What about that ? This is what I tried to explain in one of my previous post.

                                          alt text

                                          Sorry for quality of the gif, I'm not an expert in video conversion :)

                                          Q Offline
                                          Q Offline
                                          Qtstarter121
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #23

                                          @Gojir4 I know this is a pretty late reply but I just wanted to say that this actually worked out for me. Thanks so much! The GIF animation was very helpful.

                                          Gojir4G 1 Reply Last reply
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