Context Menus

A right-click in the TextControl opens a context menu whose items depend on what was clicked: a text selection, a table, a header, a field or an image offers different commands. The menus are built in and need no code. What follows shows how to add your own items, how to remove or replace a menu and how the menu of misspelled words and of drawings is chosen.

How the Built-In Menus Work

The TextControl has context menus for different parts of a document. The following screenshot of the TX Words sample shows the menu of a table of contents: the clipboard commands, the formatting dialog boxes and the commands of the table of contents:

Immediately before a built-in menu opens, the TextControl raises the TextContextMenuOpening event. Its TextContextMenuEventArgs tell you where the menu opens and give you the menu itself:

Because the menu is a standard ContextMenuStrip, you work with its Items collection, ToolStripMenuItem and ToolStripSeparator as in any Windows Forms menu.

Where the Menu Opens

ContextMenuLocation can hold several values at once, for example a text selection inside a table. Test a single value with the bitwise & operator. The enumeration has these values:

Add Items to a Menu

The following code adds a separator and a Table Properties... item to every menu that opens in a table. The item opens the table formatting dialog box of TX Text Control. Add it to Form1.cs of an application with a TextControl named textControl1, as in Create Your First Windows Forms Application:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using TXTextControl;

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        textControl1.TextContextMenuOpening += TextControl1_TextContextMenuOpening;
    }

    private void TextControl1_TextContextMenuOpening(object sender, TextContextMenuEventArgs e)
    {
        // Extend only the menus that open in a table
        if ((e.ContextMenuLocation & ContextMenuLocation.Table) != 0)
        {
            ToolStripMenuItem propertiesItem = new ToolStripMenuItem("Table Properties...");
            propertiesItem.Click += (s, args) => textControl1.TableFormatDialog();

            e.TextContextMenu.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());
            e.TextContextMenu.Items.Add(propertiesItem);
        }
    }
}

Keep the namespace that Visual Studio created around the class.

The code works as follows:

• The constructor connects the handler to TextContextMenuOpening after InitializeComponent has created the control.
• ContextMenuLocation.Table is tested with &, because the value can be combined with others such as TextSelection.
• e.TextContextMenu.Items.Add appends the new items to the menu before it is shown.
• TableFormatDialog opens the built-in table dialog box; Built-in Dialog Boxes lists the others.

The TX Words sample Context Menu of the setup works the same way: when a frame is selected (ContextMenuLocation.SelectedFrame), it adds a separator and a Frame Name... item that opens a dialog box of its own for the name of the frame:

The sample is installed in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\TX Text Control 34.0.NET for Windows Forms\CSharp\TX Words\Context Menu, and in a VB.NET folder next to it.

Remove or Replace a Menu

The event handler decides whether a menu appears at all and which one:

• No menu. Set e.Cancel to true. The following handler shows no menu in the page margins:

  private void TextControl1_TextContextMenuOpening(object sender, TextContextMenuEventArgs e)
  {
      // Suppress the menu of the top and the bottom page margin
      if ((e.ContextMenuLocation & ContextMenuLocation.PageMargin) != 0)
      {
          e.Cancel = true;
      }
  }
  

• Your own menu. Assign a ContextMenuStrip of your own to e.TextContextMenu, for example one that you designed on the form. The reference states that the menu can be altered, extended or completely replaced.

• Remove items. Remove entries from e.TextContextMenu.Items before the menu opens.

Setting e.TextContextMenu to null doesn't suppress the menu: the reference states that the TextControl then uses system menu items. Use e.Cancel to show no menu.

The Menu of Misspelled Words

When a spell checker such as TX Spell .NET is connected through the SpellChecker property, a right-click on a misspelled word opens a spelling menu. The SpellCheckContextMenuStrip property of the TextControl chooses that menu. It is a string:

Spell Checking connects the spell checker, and the TX Spell .NET page Context Menus builds a spelling menu of your own.

The Menu of Drawings

A drawing is edited in a TXDrawingControl, whose default context menu is a ShapesContextMenuStrip: Cut, Copy, Paste, Bring to Front, Send to Back, Flip and settings such as Movable and Sizable for the selected shapes. Text Frames and Shapes describes drawings.

Context Menus and the Mini Toolbar

A right-click on a selection or an object can also show the mini toolbar, a small toolbar with common formatting commands, when ShowMiniToolbar enables it. The screenshot above shows both. Toolbars and Mini Toolbars describes how to configure it.

Next Steps

• Built-in Dialog Boxes: the dialog boxes your menu items can open.
• Custom Tabs and Commands: add the same commands to the ribbon.
• Right-to-Left UI: menus and dialog boxes in a right-to-left application.
• Events: the other events of the TextControl.