LaTeX TikZ - auto resize block to fit text

Question

I got this kind of code in LaTeX using TikZ:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows}

\begin{document}

\tikzstyle{block} = [draw,rectangle,fill=blue!50,text width=8em, text centered,minimum height=8mm,node distance=10em]
\tikzstyle{line} = [draw, -latex']



\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzstyle{every node}=[font=\small]
\node [block, xshift=-3em](start){ST\_Category};
\node [block, right of=start, xshift=5em](process1){Process 1};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Blocks got fixed size. All i want to achieve to have those block auto resize to fit longer text. So the block getting withders when text is longer. For example if in first block text will be "DASDASDADASDASDASDAS" it will go over the block borders which will look bad. I what those blocks to automatically expand when the text is longer.

Answer 1

You are specifying that the with of the text is fixed via the option text width=8em. If you just eliminate that option, the box will re-size to the text.

Here is a comparison with text width=8em specified for the first line, but not for the second line:

Note:

• You should be using \tikzset instead of \tikzstyle as per Should \tikzset or \tikzstyle be used to define TikZ styles?

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows}
\begin{document}
\tikzstyle{block} = [draw, rectangle, fill=blue!50,, text centered, minimum height=8mm,node distance=10em]
\tikzstyle{line} = [draw, -latex']
\tikzstyle{every node}=[font=\small]
\begin{tikzpicture}[text width=8em]
\node block, xshift=-3em{DASDASDADASDASDASDAS};
\node block, right of=start, xshift=5em{Process 1};
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node block, xshift=-3em{DASDASDADASDASDASDAS};
\node block, right of=start, xshift=5em{Process 1};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}