How to: Create, Edit and Delete Comments

• Nov 13, 2018
• 3 minutes to read

The following example illustrates how to add, edit and delete comments in the current document.

All the document comments are contained in the collection represented by the CommentCollection interface. The collection can be accessed through the SubDocument.Comments property.

Add a comment

• To create a comment, use CommentCollection.Create method. It allows you to create a comment with the specified settings, such as author or creation date.

  

  Note

  A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/winforms-richedit-document-api-e5219

  Comments.cs

  document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
  DocumentRange docRange = document.Paragraphs[2].Range;
  string commentAuthor = "Johnson Alphonso D";
  document.Comments.Create(docRange, commentAuthor, DateTime.Now);
  

  Comments.vb

  document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
  Dim docRange As DocumentRange = document.Paragraphs(2).Range
  Dim commentAuthor As String = "Johnson Alphonso D"
  document.Comments.Create(docRange, commentAuthor, Date.Now)
  

• To create a nested comment, use the CommentCollection.Create method with the parent comment set as an argument.

  Note

  A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/winforms-richedit-document-api-e5219

  Comments.cs

  document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
  if (document.Comments.Count > 0) {
      DocumentRange[] resRanges = document.FindAll("trump", SearchOptions.None, document.Comments[1].Range);
      if (resRanges.Length > 0) {
          Comment newComment = document.Comments.Create("Vicars Anny", document.Comments[1]);
          newComment.Date = DateTime.Now;
      }
  }
  

  Comments.vb

  document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
  If document.Comments.Count > 0 Then
      Dim resRanges() As DocumentRange = document.FindAll("trump", SearchOptions.None, document.Comments(1).Range)
      If resRanges.Length > 0 Then
          Dim newComment As Comment = document.Comments.Create("Vicars Anny", document.Comments(1))
          newComment.Date = Date.Now
      End If
  End If
  

Edit a comment

To edit the comment content, use the Comment.BeginUpdate and Comment.EndUpdate paired methods. You can add any text and insert additional objects to the comment, as illustrated below.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/winforms-richedit-document-api-e5219

Comments.cs

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
int commentCount = document.Comments.Count;
if (commentCount > 0)
{
    DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native.Comment comment = document.Comments[document.Comments.Count - 1];
    if (comment != null)
    {
        SubDocument commentDocument = comment.BeginUpdate();
        commentDocument.InsertText(commentDocument.CreatePosition(0), "some text");
        commentDocument.Tables.Create(commentDocument.CreatePosition(9), 5, 4);
        comment.EndUpdate(commentDocument);
    }
}

Comments.vb

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
Dim commentCount As Integer = document.Comments.Count
If commentCount > 0 Then
    Dim comment As DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native.Comment = document.Comments(document.Comments.Count - 1)
    If comment IsNot Nothing Then
        Dim commentDocument As SubDocument = comment.BeginUpdate()
        commentDocument.InsertText(commentDocument.CreatePosition(0), "some text")
        commentDocument.Tables.Create(commentDocument.CreatePosition(9), 5, 4)
        comment.EndUpdate(commentDocument)
    End If
End If

You can also change the comment settings by changing the corresponding Comment object properties. All the operation should be enclosed with Comment.BeginUpdate and Comment.EndUpdate paired methods as well.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/winforms-richedit-document-api-e5219

Comments.cs

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
int commentCount = document.Comments.Count;
if (commentCount > 0)
{
    document.BeginUpdate();
    DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native.Comment comment = document.Comments[document.Comments.Count - 1];
    comment.Name = "New Name";
    comment.Date = DateTime.Now;
    comment.Author = "New Author";
    document.EndUpdate();
}

Comments.vb

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
Dim commentCount As Integer = document.Comments.Count
If commentCount > 0 Then
    document.BeginUpdate()
    Dim comment As DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native.Comment = document.Comments(document.Comments.Count - 1)
    comment.Name = "New Name"
    comment.Date = Date.Now
    comment.Author = "New Author"
    document.EndUpdate()
End If

Delete a comment

To delete a comment from the document, delete it from the corresponding collection. To do that, use the CommentCollection.Remove method.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/winforms-richedit-document-api-e5219

Comments.cs

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
if (document.Comments.Count > 0)
{
    document.Comments.Remove(document.Comments[0]);
}

Comments.vb

document.LoadDocument("Grimm.docx", DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
If document.Comments.Count > 0 Then
    document.Comments.Remove(document.Comments(0))
End If