How do I right-align the 'help' menu item in WPF?

Question

I have the following (simplifed) section in my XAML file:

<Menu Width="Auto" Height="20" Background="#FFA9D1F4" DockPanel.Dock="Top">
    <MenuItem Header="File">
        <MenuItem Header="Exit"/>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="Edit">
        <MenuItem Header="Cut"/>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="Help">
        <MenuItem Header="About"/>
    </MenuItem>
</Menu>

and it results in:

+-------------------------------------------+
| File Edit Help                            |
+-------------------------------------------+
|                                           |

What do I need to do if I want the Help menu item on the right-hand side:

+-------------------------------------------+
| File Edit                            Help |
+-------------------------------------------+
|                                           |

score 91 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 18 '17 at 22:47

91

Alng the same principle and this time you dont need the grid and therefore dont need to know the number of items. Assign all items to the left except the help :)

<Menu Height="20" Background="#FFA9D1F4">
    <Menu.ItemsPanel>
        <ItemsPanelTemplate>
            <DockPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"/>
        </ItemsPanelTemplate>
    </Menu.ItemsPanel>
    <MenuItem Header="File">
        <MenuItem Header="Exit"/>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="Edit">
        <MenuItem Header="Cut"/>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="Help" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
        <MenuItem Header="About"/>
    </MenuItem>
</Menu>

edited Oct 18 '17 at 22:47

ctwheels

21,901
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answered Jun 11 '10 at 15:04

Leom Burke

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Excellent point. I generally use DockPanels sparingly in my code, so I just didn't think of it. Of course, if you were to use this approach, you could add a Style for MenuItem in Menu.Resources to set DockPanel.Dock to a value of Left, and then you'd only need to put the DockPanel.Dock="Right" on the last MenuItem. But @paxdiablo - I agree - the end result certainly has a retro feel to it... :) – Wonko the Sane Jun 11 '10 at 15:18
1

I have just edited the above - it turns out that if you have the Stretch on the DockPanel and HorizontalAlignment on the MenuItem then you dont need the explicit dock properties. – Leom Burke Jun 11 '10 at 15:27
this is better than accepted answer - "less mess" solution; there is an issue though with multi-line menu when window width is less than required to show all menu items. – DK. Jun 11 '10 at 21:05
1

This works great but you can't have more than one MenuItem in the right side. Another approach is to create two menus and align them using a grid (left & right). The keyboard accessibility changes in this case so make sure you check it. – addmoss Aug 07 '20 at 15:05

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 14:54

Another possible answer, if you always know how many menu items there will be (and that makes this answer fragile), is to define the Menu.ItemsPanel as a grid, set the Menu to Stretch, set the Grid.ColumnDefinitions appropriately, set the MenuItems to the appropriate Grid.Column, and set the HorizontalAlignment of the last menu item as Right.

   <Menu  Height="20" Background="#FFA9D1F4" DockPanel.Dock="Top" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
        <Menu.ItemsPanel>
            <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                <Grid>
                    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                </Grid>
            </ItemsPanelTemplate>
        </Menu.ItemsPanel>
        <MenuItem Header="File" Grid.Column="0">
            <MenuItem Header="Exit"/>
        </MenuItem>
        <MenuItem Header="Edit" Grid.Column="1">
            <MenuItem Header="Cut"/>
        </MenuItem>
        <MenuItem Header="Help" Grid.Column="2" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
            <MenuItem Header="About"/>
        </MenuItem>
    </Menu>

Note that you need to define the maximum number of menu items as the number of ColumnDefinitions. That way, if some menu items are set to Visible.Collapsed, the menu will still be displayed properly, as the ColumnDefinitions are set to Auto width. — Wonko the Sane, Jun 11 '10 at 14:55
This answer is good but in my opinion Leom Burke's answer is better. DockPanel is more efficent than Grid too. — Ray Burns, Jun 11 '10 at 22:18
This answer worked best for me as it gives me perfect control. The other answers using the dockpanel template only work for a single button aligned right. The rest don't align right even with HorizontalAlignment="Right" — mandy1339, Jul 23 '19 at 00:50
This approach worked for me where the approach did not. , for me, would not correctly arbitrate any `stretch` needed by any other and the `HorizontalAlignment="Right"`, which could only be placed upon the last listed . This approach allowed me to finely tune the menu layout. — ergohack, Aug 29 '19 at 00:08

Pete Bosch · Answer 3 · 2012-01-30T15:18:28.397

Alteration to the original answer, since as it is (with HorizontalAlignment="Stretch") the Edit menu will stretch all the way across the menu bar to the Help menu.

Also incorporating Rokke's submenu alignment suggestion...

<Menu Height="20" Background="#FFA9D1F4">
        <Menu.ItemsPanel>
            <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                <DockPanel/>
            </ItemsPanelTemplate>
        </Menu.ItemsPanel>
        <MenuItem Header="File">
            <MenuItem Header="Exit"/>
        </MenuItem>
        <MenuItem Header="Edit">
            <MenuItem Header="Cut"/>
        </MenuItem>
        <MenuItem Header="_Help" HorizontalAlignment="Right" FlowDirection="RightToLeft">
            <MenuItem Header="About..." FlowDirection="LeftToRight"/>
        </MenuItem>
    </Menu>

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 14 '11 at 13:17

<Menu DockPanel.Dock="Top">
  <Menu.ItemsPanel>
    <ItemsPanelTemplate>
      <DockPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"/>
    </ItemsPanelTemplate>
  </Menu.ItemsPanel>
  <MenuItem Header="_File">
    <MenuItem Click="Exit_Clicked" Header="E_xit" />
  </MenuItem>
  <MenuItem Header="_User">
    <MenuItem Click="ChangePassword_Clicked" Header="_Change Password..." />
  </MenuItem>
  <!-- Right adjusted help menu with sub menu keeping inside the main window -->
  <MenuItem Header="_Help" HorizontalAlignment="Right" FlowDirection="RightToLeft">
    <MenuItem Click="About_Clicked" Header="_About..." FlowDirection="LeftToRight" />
  </MenuItem>
</Menu>

Just a small addition to the original answer. Including the two flow directions make the sub menu stay inside the window.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 14:50

I don't think there is an easy way. Menu keeps all Items on one side and even ignores HorizontalContentAlignment of the Menu or HorizontalAlignment of the MenuItem.

But you could do a workaround. The margin property works. So i think you could bind the margin of the Help MenuItem to the width of the Menu. But you would have to use a Converter to calculate the margin from the width.

I dont know if its good to do something like that. I wouldn't. But if you really want it, thats a way that should work.

Thanks for the advice, _especially_ that last sentence. After doing it, it turned out to not look so good so I think I'll join you in future with that "I wouldn't" comment. +1. — paxdiablo, Jun 11 '10 at 15:05

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 06:36

There are one, perhaps two, potential drawbacks to using either a DockPanel or a Grid, instead of the default WrapPanel.

If the window is too small to show all the menu items on one line, they won't wrap to the next.
If the menuitems will be shared for use in a different context, such as in a ContextMenu, the last item will be right-aligned

How do I right-align the 'help' menu item in WPF?

6 Answers6

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