Android Beginner: Prevent admob from pushing content up

Question

I am a beginner so bear with me. I have a layout with several buttons and then an adview at the bottom. When the ad loads, it pushes the buttons up and makes them very small. Is there anyway to prevent the content from being pushed up?

Here is my code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:ads="http://schemas.android.com/apk/lib/com.google.ads"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/background_hdpi" >

    <com.google.ads.AdView
        android:id="@+id/ad"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        ads:adSize="BANNER"
        ads:adUnitId="a14fc541226f07b"
        ads:loadAdOnCreate="true" >
    </com.google.ads.AdView>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_above="@id/ad"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:weightSum="7.0" >

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics1"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_marginBottom="2.0dip"
            android:layout_marginTop="100.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Overview"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics2"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_margin="2.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Campaign"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics3"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center"
            android:layout_margin="2.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Special Ops"
            android:textColor="#ff000000"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics4"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_margin="2.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Zombies"
            android:textColor="#ff000000"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics5"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_margin="2.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Modes"
            android:textColor="#ff000000"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/basics6"
            android:layout_width="150.0dip"
            android:layout_height="0.0dip"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_margin="2.0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1.0"
            android:text="Ranks/Unlocks"
            android:textColor="#ff000000"
            android:textSize="16.0sp" />
    </LinearLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

You have a few options.

1. Make your buttons a fixed size instead of weight dependent. Weights make your Buttons take up a fraction of the space available. So when the ad loads, the space available decreases and then your buttons become smaller.

2. Change your RelativeLayout into a FrameLayout and put the ads after the button LinearLayout.

3. Put everything inside ScrollView, ie:

RelativeLayout -> ScrollView -> LinearLayout (height:wrap_content,width:fill_parent) -> AdView + LinearLayout with Buttons