How to: Create the RichEditControl with a Bar UI

• Jan 23, 2019
• 3 minutes to read

This tutorial describes how to create a word processing application with the bar user interface and adjust its appearance.

In this document:

• Create an Application
• Provide a Bar UI
• Change the Application’s Appearance

Create an Application

1. In Visual Studio menu, click FILE | New | Project… In the invoked New Project dialog, select Windows Forms Application, specify the project name and location, and click OK.

   

2. Drop the RichEditControl item from the DX.18.2: Rich Text Editor toolbox tab onto the form.

   

3. Click the RichEditControl’s smart tag and select Dock in Parent Container in the invoked RichEditControl Tasks menu to stretch the control to fill the parent form.

   

Provide a Bar UI

1. Click the RichEditControl’s smart tag once again, and select Create BarManager in the invoked menu to add a BarManager to the form.

   

2. Select Create All Bars in the RichEditControl Tasks menu to add all available bar groups at once (or click the required item(s) to add a particular bar group(s) to the form).

   

   Note that you can convert traditional bars and menus to the modern ribbon interface at any time by clicking the BarManager’s smart tag and selecting Convert to Ribbon.

   

3. You can also generate a BarManager at runtime. The code sample below creates all available bar groups. Paste this code to the form constructor or to the Load event handler.

   C#

   BarManager barManager = richEditControl1.CreateBars();
   barManager.Form = this;
   

   VB.NET

   Dim barManager As BarManager = richEditControl1.CreateBars()
   barManager.Form = Me
   

4. A simple word processing application is now ready. Run it and view the result. For example, type and format text, insert pictures and explore the various toolbar buttons.

   

Note

Commands executed using the Bar (Ribbon) user interface can throw unhandled exceptions if a problem occurs. Consider the situation when a document is being saved to a locked or read-only file. To prevent application failure, subscribe to the RichEditControl.UnhandledException event and set the RichEditUnhandledExceptionEventArgs.Handled property to true.

Change the Application’s Appearance

• Change the application’s skin

  At design time	In code
  Invoke the DevExpress Project Settings page and select a desired skin in the Skin Options group.	Call the UserLookAndFeel.Default static object’s UserLookAndFeel.SetSkinStyle method: C# using DevExpress.LookAndFeel; // ... UserLookAndFeel.Default.SetSkinStyle("Office 2019 Colorful", "Yale"); VB.NET Imports DevExpress.LookAndFeel ' ... UserLookAndFeel.Default.SetSkinStyle("Office 2019 Colorful", "Yale")

• Change the RichEditControl’s skin

  Use the RichEditControl.LookAndFeel property to access an object specifying the control’s look and feel settings.

  C#

  
  richEditControl1.LookAndFeel.UseDefaultLookAndFeel = false;
  richEditControl1.LookAndFeel.SkinName = "Office 2016 Colorful";
  

  VB.NET

  
  richEditControl1.LookAndFeel.UseDefaultLookAndFeel = False
  richEditControl1.LookAndFeel.SkinName = "Office 2016 Colorful"
  

• Use bitmap or vector icons

  The word processing application uses vector icons by default, which ensures that the application is rendered correctly on high-DPI devices.

  Set the static WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages property to DefaultBoolean.False at the application’s startup to make your application use bitmap icons in the GUI.

  C#

  
  static void Main() {
      DevExpress.XtraEditors.WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages = DevExpress.Utils.DefaultBoolean.False;
      // ... 
  }
  

  VB.NET

  
  Sub Main()
      DevExpress.XtraEditors.WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages = DevExpress.Utils.DefaultBoolean.False 
      ' ... 
  End Sub
  

  The following images illustrate the standard RichEditControl’s bar UI with default vector and bitmap icons:

  SVG Icons
  Bitmap Icons

• You can disable or hide any command button. Specify restriction settings for a RichEditControl by setting the required properties of the RichEditBehaviorOptions (RichEditControl.Options.Behavior) and DocumentCapabilitiesOptions (RichEditControl.Options.DocumentCapabilities) objects to the DocumentCapability value to solve the task.

Tip

Refer to the Examples section for more examples on how to work with the Rich Text Editor.