How can i stop the axtoolbar from hiding?

I want the axtoolbar within a 2D-Plot to be shown always, not only when i put the mouse in the upper right part of the plot. Can this dynamic hiding function be disabled? If there is a solution, would it also work in App Designer?

Regards,

Matthias

[Jonas]

you may have a look here

you can also conser to bring back the old exploration buttons

[Mann Baidi]

Hi, Can I know the use case for a better solution.

[Matthias Fath]

I am building an App and for the plots i am quite happy with the default functionalities in axtoolbar, all i do is restricting them to 'export','pan','datacursor','zoomin' and 'restoreview'. I am not so happy with the responsiveness of the toolbars hiding and unhiding. It is annoying and sometimes the toolbar hides, when i move the mouse towards it, which is not a good user experience. Also the app will be used by people, not familiar with matlab at all. By always displaying the toolbar i want to make it easier for them to see the possible interacctions with the plots.

Rergards,

Matthias

Answer 1

[Suraj Kumar]

Hi Matthias,

In the "axtoolbar," there isn't a direct method to disable the dynamic hiding feature. However, as a workaround, the options within the "axtoolbar" can be made permanently visible on the figure toolbar. This can be achieved by customizing the toolbar and reinstating the traditional exploration buttons.

For better understanding you can refer to the below code snippet:

function [] = figToolbarFix(hFig) 
% enable the old 'zoom', 'rotation', 'pan', 'data tips'buttons  
addToolbarExplorationButtons(hFig)  
[img1,map1] = rgb2ind(imread(fullfile(matlabroot,... 
    'toolbox','matlab','icons','tool_plottools_show.png')),32); 
[img2,map2] = imread(fullfile(matlabroot,... 
    'toolbox','matlab','icons','pageicon.gif')); 

% Convert image from indexed to truecolor  
icon1 = ind2rgb(img1,map1); 
icon2 = ind2rgb(img2,map2); 

% Get hiddenhandle of the toolbar we want to append to.   
hToolbar=findall(gcf, 'type', 'uitoolbar');   

% for a single toggle that opens/closes the previous state of the plot tools   
uitoggletool(hToolbar,'CData',icon1,... 
    'TooltipString','Property Editor',... 
    'OnCallBack','plottools(''on'')',... 
    'OffCallBack','plottools(''off'')',... 
    'Separator','on',... 
    'HandleVisibility','off'); 
end

After customizing the icon arrangement, you can hide specific "axtoolbar ”items using the following command:

ax = gca; 
ax.Toolbar.Visible = 'off'; 

Output:

Similarly, in App Designer, you can incorporate buttons and tailor their behavior to replicate this functionality by adjusting the callback function as needed. For instance, to implement a "zoom-in" feature, you can insert the following code into the callback function:

zoom(app.UIAxes,'on'); 

You can refer the following links for better understanding:

• https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/427295-how-can-i-keep-the-plot-interaction-options-permanently-visible-in-the-axes-toolbar
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/addtoolbarexplorationbuttons.html

Hope this helps!

[Cedric]

OMG! Thank you for this code!

[Suraj Kumar]

You are welcome.

[Cedric]

For YEARS, I have been imagining the meeting at MATLAB HQ where they decided to take my most-used buttons and make them invisible until you de-select the select tool and mouse-over the axes.

That's 90 minutes of my life matlab!!!

Answer 2

[Gert]

Bug report:

I have a fresh install of Matlab 2025a, the toolbar shows when the mouse hovers over the figure (for Plotyy), but disappears when I try to click on one of the toolbar buttons. The toolbar is visible when the mouse is within the figure border, but disappears when outside of the border. With regular plot it works as usual.

[Adam Danz]

Please contact tech support and include instructions how to reproduce the problem.