Dear team,
Description
Planning Analytics Workspace provides different widget types, such as Selector Visualization, Single Cell, and Exploration (view), that are frequently used together to build dashboards and process-oriented applications.
Although these widgets provide similar typography and appearance settings, they currently do not provide sufficient controls to achieve consistent visual alignment across the different widget types.
The issue was reproduced with identical font settings and widget dimensions. It was reproduced on PAW 3.1.10 and PAW 2.1.23 with Selector Visualization, Single Cell, and Exploration placed side by side.
IBM Support confirmed in case TS022703707 that these widgets were designed and implemented independently over time and that visual differences can therefore exist between them. The specific rendering issues covered by DT501423 and DT501521 are being addressed separately. The broader requirement for consistent styling and layout control across widget types remains.
Current limitation
With the same IBM Plex, 14px, Regular typography, identical outer height, and the same border settings, the widgets can still differ in:
As a result, identical outer dimensions do not necessarily produce visually aligned content. Text can appear differently positioned or have a different perceived text size because of differences in the available inner space and vertical layout.
For Exploration, the relevant comparison is limited to the title, dimension tiles, and first visible header row, rather than the complete Exploration rendering.
Enhancement requested
Provide additional styling and layout controls that allow developers to compensate for these differences.
Priority 1 – Configurable inner padding / content spacing
Allow developers to control the internal spacing between the widget boundary and its content.
Priority 2 – Configurable vertical content alignment
Allow content/text to be aligned consistently, for example top, center, or bottom.
Priority 3 – Consistent relationship between outer height and inner content box
Provide predictable control over how the configured widget height translates into the available content area.
Additional controls such as line height, border placement/thickness, baseline behavior, and content-area dimensions would further improve consistency, but are secondary to the three capabilities above.
The goal is not to make all widget implementations technically identical, but to provide sufficient controls so that developers can achieve consistent visual results across widget types.
Expected behavior / acceptance criterion
With identical typography (IBM Plex 14px Regular), the same outer height, and a 1px border, developers should be able to bring the text baselines of Selector Visualization, Single Cell, and the relevant Exploration content into alignment within 1px, using the available inner-padding and vertical-alignment controls.
More generally:
outer widget boundaries can be aligned
text/content can be positioned consistently
internal spacing can be adjusted predictably
typography appears consistent at identical font settings
readable layouts can be created without arbitrary differences in widget height
The relevant styling controls should behave consistently across the supported widget types rather than each widget type having a different, non-configurable inner layout.
Business value
Consistent styling and layout controls would improve the quality and maintainability of PAW dashboards and process-oriented applications, including:
data preparation and copy/allocation workflows
planning and submission processes
KPI and status dashboards
guided planning applications
This would reduce layout workarounds, improve predictability for application developers, and provide better visual consistency and readability for end users.
Where technically feasible, application- or theme-level defaults for these styling properties would further improve consistency across larger applications.
Additional context
This requirement is based on the real-world behavior documented in TS022703707. IBM Support recommended submitting an Enhancement Request for the broader styling consistency requirement, while the specific rendering issues are tracked separately under DT501423 and DT501521.
The future unified user experience may improve consistency over time, but explicit styling controls would still provide a practical solution for existing and current PAW applications.
Thank you for considering this enhancement.
With best regards,
Vitalij
+1
I support this enhancement request.
When different PAW widget types are used together, having the same font settings and outer dimensions does not necessarily result in consistent visual alignment. Differences in internal padding, content positioning, and available content space can still be noticeable.
For application developers, being able to explicitly control these aspects would be much more useful than having to compensate by using different widget heights or other layout workarounds.
The proposed priorities around inner padding, vertical alignment, and the relationship between outer height and the content area address the most relevant aspects. This would make it much easier to build clean and consistent PAW applications across different widget types.