What's New in TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 27.0

Displays with more than 96 DPI are what version 27.0 prepared TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms for: the editor, its ribbons, dialog boxes and rulers are drawn sharply on screens of up to 300 DPI and more. The same version opened the TextControl to UI Automation clients, made the built-in icons and texts available through the ResourceProvider class and let every kind of text field be highlighted.

Version 27.0 was released on May 28, 2019, as TX Text Control X17, together with TX Text Control .NET Server, TX Text Control .NET for WPF and TX Text Control ActiveX. Its last full installer, that of Service Pack 2, is dated February 6, 2020. The features below are the ones added since version 26.0.

Version 27.0 at a Glance

DPI Awareness

TX Text Control handles display scale factors other than 96 DPI and supports applications that are system DPI aware. All parts of the built-in user interface have high-resolution images, and the ribbons, dialog boxes, rulers and selection frames were adapted to displays of up to 300 DPI and more. Text Control recommends setting the DPI awareness of an application in its application manifest.

Per-monitor DPI awareness, which rescales the TextControl when its window moves to another display, followed in Version 29.0. High DPI and Display Scaling compares both modes.

Built-In Resources

The new static class Windows.Forms.ResourceProvider gives an application the resources of the built-in ribbon tabs and toolbars, so that it can use them in other parts of its user interface.

• Images. GetSmallIcon and GetLargeIcon return the high-resolution image of a built-in item, identified by its unique ID, for a given display scale factor. ResourceProvider.ImageSourceSettings holds further settings of the image, such as the culture and the colors.
• Texts. GetText and the methods for the key tips and the title and description of tooltips return the other resources of an item.

Localization and Resource Kit shows the class in use.

UI Automation

The TextControl supports the UI Automation interfaces TextPattern and ValuePattern, in Windows Forms and in WPF applications. TextPattern exposes the text of the document; it relies on TextPatternRange, which represents one or several spans of text by their start and end points and reports their format and style attributes. Accessibility and UI Automation describes what a UI Automation client reads and shows a sample.

Text Fields

Every kind of text field, such as a HypertextLink, an ApplicationField or a PageNumberField, can be highlighted. TextField.HighlightMode highlights a field always, never or only while it is activated, and TextField.HighlightColor sets the color. The color can be semitransparent, so that the highlighting mixes with other colors of the text. See Fields, Hyperlinks, and Bookmarks.

Ribbons

• Field navigator. RibbonReportingTab.FieldNavigatorSidebar connects the reporting tab with a sidebar that shows a field navigator. The sidebar then shows the structure of a mail merge template automatically. See Reporting Ribbon and Dialog Boxes.
• Editable list view items. A ribbon list view item with IsEditable set to true is edited in a text box that appears on a double click, with the F2 key or through RibbonListView.ActivateEditItemTextBox.
• Group alignment. RibbonGroup.HorizontalContentAlignment sets the horizontal alignment of the content of a ribbon group; the default is left.

Upgrade to Version 27.0

• Update notes. The What's New documentation of version 27.0 has no update notes: no existing class or member was changed.
• Breaking changes. No change of version 27.0 is known to break existing code. Breaking Changes starts with version 30.0.

New Classes, Properties, Methods and Events

These are the classes and members that the What's New documentation of version 27.0 lists for TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms. Names are relative to the TXTextControl namespace. Each name links to its current reference page.

New Classes

• Windows.Forms.ResourceProvider
• Windows.Forms.ResourceProvider.ImageSourceSettings

.NET Members by Class

Next Steps

• Version 28.0: the features of the next version.
• Version 26.0: the features of the previous version.
• Older Versions: all versions from 29.0 back to 10.1.
• TX Text Control X17 has been Released: the release announcement on the Text Control Blog.