Rich Text Editor

• May 19, 2026
• 5 minutes to read

The Rich Text Editor allows you to create, load, edit, print, save, and convert rich-formatted text files.

Supported Document Formats

The Rich Text Editor supports the following formats:

• DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, ODT, XML
• HTML, MHTML - open/save with limitations
• Export to PDF

Refer to the following section for more information: Supported Document Formats.

Run Demo: Load and Save Run Demo: Export to PDF

Client API

The ASPxClientRichEdit class implements the control’s client functionality and includes the following commonly used properties:

• commands - allows you to create, open, modify, and save a document.
• document - returns information about document content.
• selection - allows you to change the cursor position in a document and select document elements.

Refer to the following section for examples on how to use the client-side API: Common Use Cases.

Server API

Use the ASPxRichEdit class to create and customize the Rich Text Editor on the server side.

Note

You can use our cross-platform and high-performance Word Processing Document API to process documents on the server.

Features

Formatting Features

The Rich Text Editor allows you to perform the following actions:

• Format characters.

• Format paragraphs.

• Create and modify bulleted, numbered and multi-level lists.

• Apply paragraph and character-based styles.

• Insert images in popular formats: JPEG, JPG, PNG, and GIF.

• Create, move, resize and rotate floating objects.

• Insert and modify hyperlinks and bookmarks.

• Insert and modify tables.

• Divide a document into different sections with individual page settings and formatting.

• Specify different headers and footers for the first page, odd and even pages, and each section.

Run Demo: Character Formatting

Mail Merge

The Mail Merge functionality allows you to generate personalized documents and catalogs from a single template. The Rich Text Editor retrieves data from the bound data source and populates the corresponding fields in a template to create a series of documents.

Run Demo

Field Support

The Rich Text Editor supports fields - special placeholders for non-static data that can change (for instance, a page number or date and time). The control replaces these placeholders with actual data when it renders or prints a document. The DOCVARIABLE field allows you to perform complex merge and substitution operations with documents.

Run Demo: Fields Run Demo: Document Variables

Full-text Search

The Find and Replace feature allows users to locate and modify text in an entire document.

Run Demo

Document Protection

The Rich Text Editor has full support for range permissions. End users can authenticate and edit ranges according to their permissions.

Run Demo

Document and Operation Restrictions

The Rich Text Editor allows you to restrict certain document operations (such as open/save or copy/paste) and document format capabilities (such as character or paragraph formatting) to protect your documents.

Run Demo

UI Customization

The Rich Text Editor has a customizable context menu and Ribbon UI.

Run Demo: Context Menu Customization Run Demo: Ribbon Customization

Spell Checking

The spell checking feature allows the Rich Text Editor to highlight words with possible errors and list spelling suggestions.

Run Demo

Accessibility

The Rich Text Editor component supports screen reader announcements to help users navigate the document. As users move through content or select objects, the screen reader announces the current text fragment or identifies the selected layout element.

Text Fragment or Document Element	Shortcut or Trigger	Screen Reader Announcement
Paragraph	Ctrl + Up Arrow Ctrl + Down Arrow	Reads the entire paragraph.
Line	Up Arrow Down Arrow	Reads the entire line.
Word	Ctrl + Right Arrow Ctrl + Left Arrow	Reads the current word.
Character	Right Arrow Left Arrow	Reads the current character or symbol.
Text selection	Select text or clear selection	Announces the selection change and reads the selected text fragment if it is shorter than 500 characters. If the selected fragment is longer, announces the number of selected characters.
Hyperlink	The caret moves to a hyperlink	Announces that the caret entered a hyperlink. Does not read the target address.
	Move the caret away from a hyperlink	Announces that the caret left a hyperlink.
Image	Move the caret next to an image / select an image	Announces the presence of an image and reads the image’s alternate text or image name (if specified).
Table	Move the caret into a table	Announces the number of rows and columns.
	Move the caret away from a table	Announces that the caret left the table.
Table cell	Move the caret between table cells	Announces the current column and row. Reads cell content.

Localization

You can localize the Rich Text Editor to multiple languages and cultures.

Unsupported features are listed in the following topic: Unsupported Features.

Demos and Examples

Watch Video: Rich Text Editor - Preview Run Demo: Rich Text Editor - Overview

Rich Text Editor demos ship with the DevExpress Unified Component Installer. Refer to the following section for more information on how to install and run Rich Text Editor demos on a local machine: Control Demos.