How to wrap a preference title? (Really)

Question

Please don't point me to How to wrap preference title? as it doesn't work for the case where (as I commented) you use a @strings/ reference to a strings.xml file.

If you use

android:title="@string/some_string"

and put

<string name="some_string">the string I want \n to wrap</string>

into strings.xml, the \n is ignored.

Answer 1

For most Android versions, there is no exposed API to allow line wrapping on Preference titles. This leads to the unfortunate common bug of truncated/faded text on medium-to-long titles, especially on small screen devices in portrait orientation:

<PreferenceScreen
    android:key="my_pref_key"
    android:title="A Long Preference Title that should wrap to multiple lines" />

But there are 2 ways to workaround it:

1. The easy way - But this only works on Android 8 (API 26) and above:

Use android:singleLineTitle="false" like this:

<PreferenceScreen
    android:key="my_pref_key"
    android:title="A Long Preference Title that should wrap to multiple lines"
    android:singleLineTitle="false" />

2. The hard way - Custom Preference Child layouts - This works on all Android versions:

For Preferences that have long titles, use a custom layout on them (like this), where the TextView has explicitly turned off single-line text. But you have to set the layouts programmatically, because the themes are different between Android 4 (Holo theme) and Android 5 and above (Material theme).

SettingsFragment.java or SettingsActivity.java:

PreferenceScreen myPreferenceItem = (PreferenceScreen)
    getPreferenceScreen().findPreference("my_pref_key");

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
    myPreferenceItem.
        setLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_child_material_customized);
} else {
    myPreferenceItem.
        setLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_child_holo_customized);
}

Example for res/layout/preference_child_material_customized.xml:

Copy this file from your Android SDK/platforms/android-22/data/res/layout/ preference_child_material.xml (like this one) and customize it:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginStart="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingStart"
    android:minHeight="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    android:gravity="center_vertical"
    android:paddingStart="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingStart"
    android:paddingEnd="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingEnd">

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+android:id/icon_frame"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:minWidth="40dip"
        android:gravity="start|center_vertical"
        android:orientation="horizontal">
        <ImageView
            android:id="@+android:id/icon"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dip" />
    </LinearLayout>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:paddingTop="16dip"
        android:paddingBottom="16dip">

        <TextView android:id="@+android:id/title"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:singleLine="false"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceListItem" />

        <TextView android:id="@+android:id/summary"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_below="@android:id/title"
            android:layout_alignStart="@android:id/title"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceListItemSecondary"
            android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorSecondary"
            android:maxLines="10" />

    </RelativeLayout>

    <!-- Preference should place its actual preference widget here. -->
    <LinearLayout android:id="@+android:id/widget_frame"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:minWidth="58dip"
        android:gravity="end|center_vertical"
        android:orientation="vertical" />

</LinearLayout>

Notice the line android:singleLine="false" on the TextView.

For res/layout/preference_child_holo_customized.xml, you should copy it from your Android SDK/platforms/android-19/data/res/layout/ preference_child.xml or preference_child_holo.xml (like this one) and customize it in a similar way.