How to get a TextBlock to right-align? - xaml

Question

How do I get the TextBlock in my status bar below to align to the right?
I've told it to:
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
TextAlignment="Right"
but the text is still sitting unobediently on the left. What else do I have to say?
<Window x:Class="TestEvents124.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300"
MaxWidth="700" Width="700"
>
<DockPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="0,0,0,0" Width="Auto">
<StatusBar Width="Auto" Height="25" Background="#888" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<TextBlock
Width="Auto"
Height="Auto"
Foreground="#fff"
Text="This is the footer."
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
TextAlignment="Right"
/>
</StatusBar>
<GroupBox DockPanel.Dock="Top" Height="Auto" Header="Main Content">
<WrapPanel Width="Auto" Height="Auto">
<TextBlock Width="Auto" Height="Auto" TextWrapping="Wrap" Padding="10">
This is an example of the content, it will be swapped out here.
</TextBlock>
</WrapPanel>
</GroupBox>
</DockPanel>
</Window>

Answer 1

I've had a play with your code and managed to make it look "right" (no pun intended) by using a StatusBarItem rather than a TextBlock:
<StatusBar Width="Auto" Height="25"
Background="#888" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" >
<StatusBarItem Foreground="#fff"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Right">This is the footer</StatusBarItem>
</StatusBar>
Not sure what's happening with the TextBlock - all my experience says that some combination of HorizontalContentAlignment and HorizontalAlignment (on both the StatusBar and the TextBlock) should achieve what you want. Anyway - hopefully the StatusBarItem will work for you.

Answer 2

<StatusBar>
<StatusBar.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
</Grid>
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</StatusBar.ItemsPanel>
<StatusBarItem Grid.Column="0">
<TextBlock>something</TextBlock>
</StatusBarItem>
<Separator Grid.Column="1" />
<StatusBarItem Grid.Column="2">
<TextBlock>logged in</TextBlock>
</StatusBarItem>
</StatusBar>
This example won't mess up your Separator. Based on an example taken from http://kent-boogaart.com/blog/the-perfect-wpf-statusbar
You shouldn't put a Separator in a StatusBarItem, it will reduce your separator to a dot.

Answer 3

For anyone who is looking for the answer to the question in the title (not necessarily for use in a status bar), I found a Label to be better than a TextBlock for having control over alignment and still feeling semantically correct.

Answer 4

Seems this is still an issue. The problem is that a TextBlock's width is automatically set based on its content. To verify this just set the Background property to another color. Setting the HorizontalAlignment to Stretch doesn't help.
Fortunately, most of my properties are set in code (MVPVM) and my TextBlocks are contained in a Panel and I was able to set the TextBlock's width property to its Parent width. i.e tb.Width = tb.Parent.Width, then Right alignment worked.