TX Words Sample Application
TX Words is a word processor built with TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms, and its source code is the largest sample that comes with the product. It shows how the TextControl, the ribbon, the sidebars, the ruler bars and the status bar fit together in one application, so you can take the parts you need into your own. If you are about to design a form with an editor, TX Words shows you a working arrangement of all components first.
What TX Words Is
Since version 31.0, TX Words is not one application but a set of projects that build on each other:
- The base project, TX Text Control Words, is a form with a menu (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format and Table), a ButtonBar, two RulerBar controls, a StatusBar and a TextControl. It has no ribbon.
- The Ribbon sample is a RibbonForm with the application menu, the quick access toolbar, contextual tabs and sidebars.
- Eight samples are built on the Ribbon sample and each add one topic. Each of them contains a copy of the Ribbon sample's classes in the folder Base.
The following picture shows the Conditional Instructions sample, one of the eight: the ribbon with the Form Fields tab and the contextual Table Tools tabs, a booking form in the TextControl, the conditional instructions sidebar on the right and the status bar.
Text Control split TX Words this way so that each sample is easier to understand and its modules are easier to reuse. At run time, each sample shows a Sidebar whose ContentLayout is About, with an explanation of what the sample does. Version 31.0 describes this panel, and the blog article Windows Forms and WPF Comeback: .NET 6 and 7. Our Commitment to Windows Applications introduced the split.
Where to Find It
- Installed by the setup. The setup copies the samples of the current version into your Documents folder: TX Text Control 34.0.NET for Windows Forms\CSharp\TX Words for C# and VB.NET\TX Words for Visual Basic, one folder per sample. See What the Setup Installs.
- On GitHub. The folder TX Words of TXSamples_WinForms_CSharp and TXSamples_WinForms_VB.NET contains the same projects, each for the .NET Framework 4.8 and for .NET 6, with TX Text Control Words in front of each folder name. The GitHub projects were last updated for version 32.0; GitHub Examples describes how to bring them to the current version.
The Samples
All samples are available in C# and Visual Basic. The folder names are those of the setup:
| Example | What it shows | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Ribbon | All components in one ribbon application: the tabs of TX Text Control, contextual tab groups for tables and frames, the application menu with recent files, the quick access toolbar, three sidebars, the ruler bars and the status bar | TX Words\Ribbon |
| Reporting | A template designed with a sample XML database: merge fields and merge blocks, the field navigation sidebar, and merging and exporting the results | TX Words\Reporting |
| Conditional Instructions | A form whose fields depend on each other, listed in the conditional instructions sidebar, with a preview in which invalid values are highlighted | TX Words\Conditional Instructions |
| Context Menu | A new item in the built-in context menu of frames, added in the TextContextMenuOpening event | TX Words\Context Menu |
| Drag And Drop | Documents loaded and images inserted when a user drops a file on the editor | TX Words\Drag And Drop |
| Open Hyperlink | Links to a web page, to a target in the same document, which DocumentLinkClicked scrolls to, and to another file | TX Words\Open Hyperlink |
| Right To Left | A button that restarts the application with a right-to-left layout | TX Words\Right To Left |
| Shortcuts | Keyboard shortcuts of your own, such as Insert to switch between insert and overwrite mode, handled in the KeyDown event | TX Words\Shortcuts |
| User Access | A protected document with editable regions for each user; comments and tracked changes are assigned to the signed-in user | TX Words\User Access |
The base project TX Text Control Words is in the same folder of the GitHub repositories.
Find a Sample by Topic
- The ribbon and the sidebars: Ribbon and Sidebar Examples.
- Templates and merging, as in the Reporting sample: Mail Merge Examples.
- Other techniques in the editor: Document Editor Examples.
Next Steps
- GitHub Examples: run a sample from GitHub and update it to the current version.
- Create a Ribbon Application with Sidebar Support: build a ribbon form like the one of the Ribbon sample, step by step.
- Examples: the other examples of TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms.