Trying to change elementWidth

[courtneygarlock]

Hi

I'm using the following code:

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Courtney\TEST.mxd")
for elm in arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "TEXT_ELEMENT"):
    if elm.name == "author":
        elm.text = '<dyn type="document" property="author"/>'
        elmWidth = 2.5
        elm.elementPositionX = 3.23
        elm.elementPositionY = 8.54
        print elmWidth

prints 2.5
     
The script runs fine but when I open the mxd the xy position is changed but not the elmWidth, is there another way to change
element width bc I've tried it a bunch of times and nothing works.

Also is there a better script to add title, author, dataframe time to the layout without having to set each xy position and element width?

Thank you

[LucasDanzinger]

If you are working with the 'current' map document, did you make sure to use arcpy.RefreshActiveView()? Also, are you making sure to do mxd.save() at the end?

[courtneygarlock]

I am not working in "current" I am working in pywin 2.7  and I do save.mxd() and the width still isn't changing, only the xy position will change.

[JeffBarrette]

elmWidth = 2.5 should be elm.elementWidth = 2.4

Jeff