Advanced Editor Functions

The EditControl can be used as a stand-alone text editing control capable of performing advanced functions like find-replace, line numbers, font customization, clipboard operations, text highlighting, and user margin operations. It also supports a highly customizable, built-in context menu. All of these features make Essential Edit an extremely useful control-even when syntax highlighting is not required in an application.

The EditControl provides support for Undo/Redo operations for a group of actions. When an action group is created and a set of actions is added to it, the entire set is considered one entity.

The text entered in EditControl can be automatically formatted to the language used. Currently, only C# has built-in support for this feature. However, formatting options for any desired language can be set.

The EditControl contains an Auto-Replace feature, which prompts the correct keyword/suggestion when it is misspelt. When the Auto Replace trigger key is pressed, the editor checks the word against the auto replace table. After checking, the matched word is automatically replaced with it's auto replace table alternate.

The Auto replace trigger keys are defined within the language definitions. Thus the same key can be used as an Auto Replace trigger for different languages.

The EditControl uses the Clipboard when editing tasks such as, cutting, copying, or pasting text data need to be performed. It places data on the Clipboard for Cut and Copy operations and also retrieves data from the Clipboard for Paste operations.

While using the EditControl, Column guides may be needed by users to indicate certain columns that have special meaning. For instance, in certain languages(like Cobol), no text should appear past column 80. This, it would benefit the editor if a line indicating column 80 were to be displayed.

The EditControl supports unlimited number of column guides. Each column guide can have a custom color and location. Locations can be specified by a column(calculated based on the type and size of font being used in EditControl).

The default Context Menu has the standard Visual Studio.NET context menu-like look and feel with default menu items. These default menu items can be cleared and any number of custom menu items can be added to the context menu.

The Office 2003 look and feel can alos be imposed on these Context Menus. The Office 2003 look and feel is automatically experienced when the Essential Tools assemblies are referenced in the application.

Any Cursor supported by the .NET framework can be set as the current cursor for EditControl.

The EditControl supports text search and replace functionalities both in code and through the use of advanced Find and Replace dialog boxes.

The phrase or word required in Find and Replace dialog box, used by files created using EditControl, can be added or removed from a respective ArrayList. This list enables the user to easily traverse between the common search and replace words. The list contents can also be sorted as desired.

This list can be created for:

• Search words in Find dialog box
• Search words in Replace dialog box
• Replace words in Replace dialog box

Complete font customization is available for text in EditControl. Two methods can be adopted to achieve this:

• Use configuration file and customize font settings using Font, Style, FontColor fields in Format tag definition

• Use the Formats Customization Editor at run-time to set desired font, font style and font color to the various text formats

Moreover Essential Edit also supports working with non mono-space fonts.

Custom background colors can be set for individual lines of text as well as a selected block of text when editing using EditControl. Such customizations can provide special visual effects for some applications.

Auto generated line numbers can be viewed for content in EditContol, enabling easier navigation. The color and font of the line numbers can also be customized as required.

Current lines or the line where the caret is currently present can be highlighted in Edit Control.

Selection Margin is a thin vertical margin along the left hand side of the EditControl. Individual lines can be selected by a clicking this Selection Margin at the required region in EditControl.

The saved and unsaved lines can be marked with different colors. Saving the editor contents, modifies the marker color of the unsaved lines to that of the saved lines. Performing modifications now will produce a change in the marker color for the modified lines. This feature helps one in keeping track of modifications since the last save operation.

The background color of a selected block of text and bookmarks can be serialized while using EditControl. The following options are available for Serialization:

• Serialization to XML file
• Serialization to Binary file
• Serialization to XML format using external stream
• Serialization to Binary Format using external stream
• Serialization using Windows Registry
• Serialization using Isolated Storage

Status Bar is a component often found at the bottom of a window in a GUI application. The EditContol offers such a Status Bar which includes the following panels to provide rich information on its state and content:

Text Panel : Display descriptive text information about EditControl application.
It can also be used to indicate the location of the currently loaded file.

Status Panel : Display information about state of EditControl application
It can also be used to display just the Read Only state of the file loaded into the EditControl.

Encoding Panel : Display information on encoding used in EditControl.

Coords Panel : Indicate current keyboard cursor position

Insert Panel : Indicate state of Insert key

In addition to the above information, any custom text can also be displayed in the StatusBarPanels. Moreover the Status Bar also hosts a sizing gripper which supports the Smart, Visible and Hidden modes of operation.

Underlines and Wavelines are mainly used to highlight certain sections of text to notify the user about errors or important sections of the document. The EditControl supports the usage of such underlines and wavelines in different styles, colors and weights to convey different meanings.

Lines can be drawn across text in EditControl using the StrikeThrough feature. This comes in handy when denoting text deleted from the original document or highlighting offending code. Custom colors can also be applied for these strike through lines.

Text Borders highlighting in EditControl is also supported.

A certain section of text in EditControl can be selected and customized. This customization of selected text can also be relieved later. The image below illustrates a section in the EditControl that cannot be edited and can only be viewed.

The EditControl offers complete support for text selection operations that determine:

• Start position of selection
• Stop position of selection
• Selection area
• Selection of entire text
• Text to be selected
• Selection range
• Transparency of selection background
  This can be used in cases when syntax highlighting has to be visible.

The default edit control in Windows Forms supports just one level of Undo/Redo operations whereas the EditControl offered by Essential Edit supports multiple levels. This makes Essential Edit a better choice for all editing needs even when syntax highlighting is not required. Multilevel Undo/Redo operations optimize the usability of an text editing application.

There is no limit to the usage frequency of Undo/Redo operations. Shortcut keys are also available for operations and action grouping also compliments their usage.

User Margins can be added to the EditControl to display additional information regarding its contents. Information can also be displayed on a line by line basis. The User Margin is highly customizable providing custom options for width, background and foreground colors along with gradient coloring scheme.

The white spaces in EditControl can be highlighted if needed. The default indicators used are dots for spaces, right arrows for tabs and a mirrored P for the line feed. Custom indicators can be easily applied for white spaces.

White Space Indicators in EditControl

Right Arrows Indicating Tab Spaces