splitActionBarWhenNarrow means that it will be split, does not move anywhere and only when narrow. Thus, if you are in a portrait or wide screen, the menu options will always be displayed at the top. You cannot force an ActionBar to draw from below. Instead, you can completely disable the ActionBar and put your own custom view at the bottom using ImageButtons with actionButtonStyle
<style name="NoActionBar" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light"> <item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item> <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item> </style> <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"> <TextView android:id="@+id/title" android:layout_width="0dp" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" android:layout_centerVertical="true" android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/buttons_holder" android:ellipsize="end" style="@style/TextAppearance.Sherlock.Widget.ActionBar.Title"/> <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/buttons_holder" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_centerVertical="true" android:layout_alignParentRight="true" > <ImageButton android:id="@+id/acion_add" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/menu_label_add" style="?attr/actionButtonStyle" /> <ImageButton android:id="@+id/action_prev" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/menu_label_prev" style="?attr/actionButtonStyle" /> <ImageButton android:id="@+id/action_next" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/menu_label_next" style="?attr/actionButtonStyle" /> </LinearLayout> </RelativeLayout>
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