I wanted to create a user widget for a single line of text with custom font and padding, but nothing else.
I then wished to re-use this in a layout widget.
Finally, I added this layout widget to a larger widget screen and discovered that it takes up the full width of the screen.
Why does removing the canvas from the first two user widgets cause them to take up the full width of the screen?
I think you are using horizontal box by mistake. I think you should use a vertical box instead.
No, 6 of the vertically stacked lines in the last screenshot should fit on a single row in the first screenshot. It’s where it breaks ouf of the horizontal box on the side in that first screenshot that the problem is. If I put the text in a canvas, they instead automatically reduce their size, which is what I want, but I do not understand why I need a canvas to achieve that.
Hello eobet,
First of all, each widget will reference it’s given slot (given by the parent of said widget), for sizing and positioning. Also there are different kinds of slots, i.e. the slots given by a grid panel are different than to the ones given by a canvas panel, as they have different requirements.
To answer your question, it seems like your using something to constrain the size of widgets ‘StatDisplayName’ and ‘StatDisplayNumber’, a size box or a canvas, I’d recommend checking them. The second point would be, that you probably don’t use the ‘Fill’ option in the horizontal box items, to let the horizontal box itself determine the size of each item itself.
If you need further information you can look up this article collection of the UE4 documentation: UMG UI Designer | Unreal Engine Documentation
For this problem I’d recommend looking into anchors and slots.
I hope I understood you correctly, if not just let me know.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Vecherka.
The answer to every point you raised should be evident if you zoom in on the screenshots I provided.
I specifically removed the canvas panels from my widgets, and only use auto fill and no other sizing options.
Hello eobet,
thank you for answering, I’m sorry if I upset you, that wasn’t my intention. But, evidently I cannot see how the widgets ‘StatDisplayName’ and ‘StatDisplayNumber’ are set up, so they’re the most likely to cause this problem, as well as you don’t show that the items of the horizontal box use the fill option. This is part of the slot each item itself receives from the horizontal box.
I’m writing in a neutral tone of voice, I am not upset. 
The widgets you mention are both defined in Capture2.png, I have just renamed them in the hierarchy.
EDIT: Found a partial solution… apparently, one should not use Horizontal Box to lay out user widgets that don’t have canvas/size panels, but rather Uniform Grid Panels!
Silly me, I didn’t thought about that, my mistake sorry.
Still, I think the problem might be, that it auto sizes the item’s, what I meant by fill option is this on the right.
Did you try setting it up this way? It’ll use the ratio to determine how much place this item takes compared to the other ones. If each element has the same value they’ll all take up the same amount of space provided.
Using a horizontal box to layout multiple user widgets with no canvas/size panels was a bad idea in this case.
Using a uniform grid panel, things worked much better (just remember to set the column number).
