Text box (auto) size for proportional fonts

Hi,

I'm developing a GUI with plots that need annotations. I've been using the Static Text uicontrol and specifying its size and position like this:

 position = [xpos ypos width height];
 set(box_handle,'String',annotate_string);
 set(box_handle,'Position',position);
 set(box_handle,'Visible','on');

This places the text correctly, but since the font is proportional, sometimes my sizing heuristic (# chars * 1.3) fails.

If the box were to auto-size I'd be home free, but I see no way to do that. The only other alternative is to compute the width from a font table containing widths of all letters. But that's reinventing the wheel, and badly, since the information must be in Matlab already...

Thanks,

Charles

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

After you set() the String as desired, get() the Extent property: the third element of that tells you the width that would be required to display the entire string. You can adjust your Position based upon that.

[Charles]

Sweet!