- Getting to Know Our Tools 4:52
- Android Tools Overview 5 questions
- Editing a Layout File 4:52
- Changing Text in a Layout 1 objective
- Adding a TextView 4:15
- Changing Text Size 1 objective
- Adding a Button 4:31
- Adding a Button 1 objective
- Setting Colors 5:26
- Setting Colors 2 objectives
- Setting Padding 1:13
- Setting a Fullscreen Theme 3:30
- Setting Padding 1 objective
Preview
Video Player
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Adding a TextView
4:15We just saw how to edit an existing TextView. Now let's see how to add a new one!
Okay, that first TextView was an easy one,
it was already on the screen.
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Now, let's see how we can add
another TextView to our layout.
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Let's go back to the Design view.
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On the left side of the Design view,
we find a palette.
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The Palette has all sorts of Android
controls that we can drag and
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drop into our layout.
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Inside the Palette, components are split
into groups to make them easier to find.
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For example, the Widgets group contains
some commonly used elements like buttons,
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checkboxes, and progress bars.
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Everything here in the Palette
is a type of Android view.
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Now a view, in the Android sense,
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is a rectangular area on the screen
that we can see and interact with.
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These items in the Palette are all
specialized types of views,
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kind of like how a motorcycle is
a specialized type of vehicle.
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Inside the Text section,
find the view called TextView and
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then click and drag it onto the screen.
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Moving the TextView around,
we see blue arrows, dotted lines, and
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borders that change depending
on where we move it.
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This is because the TextView
will be placed relative to these
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different areas of the screen.
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We want ours to be centered vertically but
on the left hand side.
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Let's move it until we see a horizontal
dotted line through the middle.
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Also, notice how the orange box doesn't
really correspond to where I'm dragging my
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TextView, this is likely a bug.
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So I'm gonna place it and then pick
it back up, that looks a lot better.
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Now, let's move it until we see a
horizontal dotted line through the middle,
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which means we're centered vertically, and
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a green line on the left, which means
we're aligned to the left edge.
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Then let go of the mouse to drop it in and
there we go.
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Now, let's change the text again.
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Just like we did before, make sure
the TextView is selected and then, over in
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the Properties pane, let's delete this
text and add a default fact to start with.
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Let's say Ants stretch.
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When they wake up in the morning,
and hit Enter.
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Our text seems to be a little small for
the screen but
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we can fix that by changing
the text size property.
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Over in the Property pane,
let's set the text size property.
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It doesn't look like it's visible here
in the quick select section, so let's
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click View all properties and then scroll
down until we find the textSize property.
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Then let's set the textSize to 24sp and
hit Enter.
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Perfect, now we can
actually read our fun fact.
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The sp at the end stands for
scale-independent pixels,
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which is a relative unit that helps
your text look the same on devices with
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different screen sizes and different pixel
densities, like regular versus HD screens.
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One of the nice things about sp values and
why we use them for text
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is that they also take into consideration
a user's preferences for font sizes.
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A user who has a system
wide preference for
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a larger font will have that
preference reflected in our app.
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Now, since we added a textSize
here in the Design view,
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do you think it added
anything in the XML view?
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Sure enough.
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We've got our new TextView and,
down here at the bottom,
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we've got a row called android:textSize
and it's set to the value we entered.
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We can also see that the text
property of this TextView
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is set to the fun fact we entered as well.
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Let's get back to the Design view.
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And now that we know how to change
the textSize, pause me for a moment and
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change the textSize of the Did you
know TextView to 24sp as well.
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Okay, did you pause and do it?
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Last chance.
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All right, my turn.
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I'll select the TextView,
find the textSize
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property, type 24sp, and hit Enter.
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Great job.
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See if you can figure out how to
drag a button onto the screen and
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center it horizontally along the bottom.
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I'll show you how I do
it in the next video.
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