Arranging Components in App Inventor?

Question

Is there a more precise way of arranging components in App Inventor than using the Vertical/Horizontal/Table Arrangement formatting elements?

I want to sparsely position about six buttons across my app screen - all different sizes.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

the short answer is: no
well, additionally you also could use empty labels as delimiter between components...

another answer is: you could use a canvas and sprite components instead of buttons. You can define sprite positions exactly at x/y coordinates of your canvas. However keep in mind, that there are different Android devices with different screens sizes and resolutions, so normally you wouldn't set buttons exactly at x/y coordinates to avoid strange layouts for e.g. smaller or larger devices.

Answer 2

The bit longer answer is to use labels as spacers.

Example:

Need to center a button at the top of the screen.

Add horizontal layout with 2 label texts and button in center inside of the layout.

Click each text label and remove the actual text from right side properties menu and choose fill parent width and height.

This centers the button because the layout automatically assigns one third size to each.

Labels are the best, but longer coding answer.