Main Features
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The DevExpress ASP.NET Rich Text Editor allows you to introduce Microsoft® Word®-like text editing features into your next web application with ease. The Rich Text Editor is implemented as the ASPxRichEdit control, which provides advanced text formatting capabilities, as well as numerous end-user options, helping you deliver compelling business solutions.
Supported File Formats
Various popular formats are supported to load, convert and save documents - DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML, MHT, XML, ODT, EPUB, TXT. Documents can be exported to PDF. Refer to the following section for more information: Supported Document Formats.
Automation Features
- Field Support
A subset of fields defined in the ECMA-376 (Office OpenXML) standard is currently supported.
- Document Variables Support
The DOCVARIABLE field enables you to perform complex merge and substitution operations with documents.
- Mail Merge
You can bind the ASPxRichEdit to an external data source and allow end-users to preview dynamic content right in the opened template document, prior to performing final mail merge.
Content Formatting Features
The ASPxRichEdit provides all formatting features you would expect from a word processor.
- Character Formatting
Characters can be formatted using different settings for font, font size, character style - bold, italics, underlined, strike-through style and different colors for background and foreground.
- Paragraph Formatting
Formatting options for paragraphs include alignment, indentation, variable paragraph and line spacing.
- Bulleted and Numbered Lists
Bulleted, numbered and multi-level lists can be created and modified.
- Styles
Paragraph and character based styles are supported, as well as style inheritance. Stylesheets are compatible with Microsoft® Word®.
- Tables
End-users can insert tables, rows and columns, edit a table layout by splitting and merging cells, align cell content, apply borders and shading to individual cells, delete cells, columns and rows.
Content Editing Features
- Undo/Redo History
- Undo and redo operations are supported. The undo/redo history contains the last 100 operations.
- Clipboard Operations Support
- Clipboard operations (Cut, Copy, and Paste) can be used with text and images.
- Inline Pictures
Pictures can be embedded inline with text (in all popular formats, including JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.).
- Bookmarks
The content within a document can be marked as a named bookmark. Then, a hyperlink pointing to the bookmark by its name can be created.
- Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks to external locations and internal bookmarks can be easily created and modified.
- Drag and Drop Support
- Images and text blocks can be moved using drag-and-drop.
- Spell Checking
The spell checking feature allows the Rich Text Editor to highlight words with possible errors and provide spelling suggestions.
- Full-text Search
The Find and Replace feature allows end-users to easily locate and modify text within the entire open document.
Content Layout
- Support for Document Sections
You can divide documents into a number of different sections with individual page settings and formatting.
- Page Settings Customization
- You can quickly set page margins, change the page orientation and size for individual sections or the whole document.
- Multi-column Layout
- You can layout text in multiple columns within a particular section.
- Section Breaks
- Different types of breaks are supported - page breaks, column breaks and section breaks.
- Headers and Footers
Different headers and footers can be specified for the first page, odd and even pages, and each particular section. Page numbering fields (the current page number and the total number of pages) can be inserted.
Document and Operation Restrictions
- Operation Restrictions
- Commands such as Copy, Cut, Paste, Drag, Drop, Open, Save and Print can be selectively disabled or hidden. Context menu can be disabled.
- Document Restrictions
- Character/paragraph formatting, inline images, hyperlinks, sections and numbering functionality can be allowed or denied.
UI Experience
The ASPxRichEdit provides a UI experience similar to that of Microsoft Word.
- Ribbon UI
The ASPxRichEdit’s UI experience includes full integration with the DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control. The ASPxRichEdit can use either a built-in ribbon or an external ribbon control as a toolbar. A ribbon can be automatically populated with the default ribbon tabs. Or, you can manually customize the ribbon based on your application needs.
- Advanced Context Menus and Built-in Dialogs
The ASPxRichEdit provides several context menus allowing you to quickly perform actions linked to specific elements. Specially designed built-in dialogs help you work with documents and modify different document element settings.
- UI for Printing
- An integrated UI allows end-users to customize document print settings and print document content as needed.
- Horizontal Ruler
- The horizontal ruler controls the width of text columns, and the horizontal spacing of paragraph margins and tabs.
- Status Bar
- A status bar is displayed at the bottom of the editor providing helpful feedback to end-users (e.g., when the editor sends callbacks to the server).
- Fullscreen Mode
- The DevExpress ASPxRichEdit can be maximized to occupy the browser’s entire client region. You can show dialogs under an external ribbon in Fullscreen mode.
Developer API
- Server-Side API
- You can modify a document on the server side with a non-visual cross-platform .NET library Office File API.
- Client-Side API
The Rich Text Editor provides a comprehensive client API, allowing you to manipulate the open document programmatically on the client side.
Localization
All DevExpress ASP.NET controls use the same approach to localizing their UI. Refer to the following section for more information: Localization.