HtmlContentControl.AllowContentSelection Property

Gets or sets whether users can select the contents of HTML tags.

Namespace: DevExpress.XtraEditors

Assembly: DevExpress.XtraEditors.v24.1.dll

NuGet Package: DevExpress.Win.Navigation

Declaration

C#

[DefaultValue(DefaultBoolean.Default)]
[DXCategory("Behavior")]
public DefaultBoolean AllowContentSelection { get; set; }

VB.NET

<DefaultValue(DefaultBoolean.Default)>
<DXCategory("Behavior")>
Public Property AllowContentSelection As DefaultBoolean

Property Value

Type	Default	Description
DefaultBoolean	Default	Specifies the initial value of the user-select CSS property for all HTML elements. The DefaultBoolean.True value sets this property to auto, the DefaultBoolean.False and DefaultBoolean.Default values set it to none.

Available values:

Name	Description	Return Value
True	The value is true.	0
False	The value is false.	1
Default	The value is specified by a global option or a higher-level object.	2

Remarks

Enable the AllowContentSelection property to allow users to select text displayed by HTML templates. Note that when users drag the mouse pointer to select a portion of text, button captions, images, and other HTML elements along the way are also selected.

The textual content of the selected region is stored in the SelectedText property. The code below copies this property’s value to the clipboard when a user presses Ctrl+C:

C#

private void HtmlContentControl2_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) {
    HtmlContentControl hcc = sender as HtmlContentControl;
    if (e.Control && e.KeyCode == Keys.C)
        Clipboard.SetText(hcc.SelectedText);
}

VB.NET

Private Sub HtmlContentControl2_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As KeyEventArgs)
    Dim hcc As HtmlContentControl = TryCast(sender, HtmlContentControl)
    If e.Control AndAlso e.KeyCode = Keys.C Then Clipboard.SetText(hcc.SelectedText)
End Sub

When the selection changes, the SelectedTextChanged event occurs. Handle this event to inspect and modify the SelectedText property value. For instance, you can remove the contents of non-textual elements that were selected along with regular text.

C#

private void htmlContentControl2_SelectedTextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    HtmlContentControl hcc = sender as HtmlContentControl;
    string updatedText = hcc.SelectedText.Replace(" OK Cancel ", " ");
}

VB.NET

Private Sub htmlContentControl2_SelectedTextChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Dim hcc As HtmlContentControl = TryCast(sender, HtmlContentControl)
    Dim updatedText As String = hcc.SelectedText.Replace(" OK Cancel ", " ")
End Sub

You can also use the user-select CSS property to prevent unwanted HTML elements from being selected when the AllowContentSelection property is enabled.

<div class="button unselectable">Cancel</div>

.unselectable { user-select: none; }

If the AllowContentSelection property is set to DefaultBoolean.Default or DefaultBoolean.False, utilize the user-select CSS property to enable selection for individual elements.

.selectable { user-select: all; }
.selectableText { user-select: text; }