Access to Matlab Main Window position coordinates

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Is there any way that I could access the MAIN MATLAB WINDOW (Matlab 7.9.0 (R2009b)) the same way I can access a figure ? With a handle ?
What I am trying to do is reposition the main window as part of a script.
For example I already have a script that will reposition and resize all my figures stacked in the middle of my screen, but I would like to access the main window and the script editor window as well.
So far the only information I can get is the Matrix size of the command window(about useless), which in my case is just some part of what I call the main window using.
get(0,'CommandWindowSize')
Thank you for the help.

Accepted Answer

Kaustubha Govind
Kaustubha Govind on 15 Mar 2011
You could use the MATLAB Java API (see examples on the blog Undocumented MATLAB) to do this kind of thing:
desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
desktopMainFrame = desktop.getMainFrame;
% Get desktop dimensions
desktopDims = desktopMainFrame.getSize;
desktopW = desktopDims.getWidth;
desktopH = desktopDims.getHeight;
% Resize desktop to half of original size
desktopMainFrame.setSize(desktopW/2,desktopH/2);
You can explore the other methods on the objects for more.
Use this with caution, however, because this API is undocumented, and may change in a future release. It may be best to protect your code with some version checking (older or newer versions may have different APIs).
I tried to do something similar with the Editor window by using:
editor = desktop.getGroupContainer('Editor');
But, I couldn't get the window to resize. You might be able to have something working by exploring further.
PS: I am using R2010b
  7 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 16 Oct 2016
desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
container = desktop.getGroupContainer('Editor').getTopLevelAncestor;
x = 200; y = 319; w = 952; h = 1077;
container.setLocation(java.awt.Point(x, y))
container.setSize(java.awt.Dimension(h, w))
The underlying java object does not use the [x, y, h, w] kind of Position settings: it has a location of the upper left corner (in pixels from the upper left corner), and it has a size, which is height and width.
"Why"... I do not know enough about Java to know why it does anything. Before I researched the answer for you, I had no idea how to set the dimensions or position. I took the easy route: I just searched the source code in one of the private methods.

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More Answers (2)

j dr
j dr on 16 Mar 2011
I guess this will have to do...
Maybe I shouldn't have accepted it tho

Jan
Jan on 16 Oct 2016
This tool bundles some functions to access the command window: FEX: CmdWinTool

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