Ribbon, Toolbars, Rulers, and Status Bar
The editing interface around a TextControl is built from ready-made controls: a ribbon with predefined tabs or a classic button bar, the mini toolbars that appear next to the text, horizontal and vertical rulers, and a status bar. Each control is introduced below, with a link to the page that describes it in detail. How the controls connect to a TextControl is explained in Product Architecture.
Ribbon or Button Bar
You give users one of two kinds of command interface:
| Ribbon | ButtonBar | |
|---|---|---|
| What users see | Tabs of commands at the top of the window, with an Application Menu, like current word processors | One tool bar with font and paragraph attributes |
| Features | All features of the editor, through the predefined tabs | Font, font size, bold, italic, underline, alignment, lists, indents, styles and zoom |
| Editions | Enterprise and Professional | Enterprise, Professional and Express |
Text Control's ribbon tutorials add no ButtonBar, because the ribbon covers its commands. The rulers and the status bar work with either. Editions and Feature Availability lists what each edition includes.
Ribbon
The Ribbon in the TXTextControl.Windows.Forms.Ribbon namespace is a command bar that replaces the menu bar and the toolbars. Its first tab, File, can be an Application Menu, and TX Text Control provides 13 predefined tabs, from RibbonFormattingTab for fonts and paragraphs to RibbonReportingTab for templates, that work with the connected TextControl without command code of your own.
- Built-in Ribbon Tabs lists the tabs with their groups, shows how contextual tab groups such as Table Tools work, and how you change or remove items.
- Custom Tabs and Commands adds tabs, groups and buttons of your own, fills the Application Menu and sets up the Quick Access Toolbar of a RibbonForm.
ButtonBar
The ButtonBar is a classic tool bar that shows and sets the font and paragraph attributes of the connected TextControl. ButtonPositions chooses which items it shows and in which order, up to 31 of them, such as the font name and size boxes, bold, italic and underline, the alignment and list buttons, and a style and a zoom box. Toolbars and Mini Toolbars describes its settings.
Mini Toolbars
A MiniToolbar is a small, contextual version of the ribbon that opens next to the text. The TextMiniToolbar appears for text and tables, the ObjectMiniToolbar for a selected text frame, drawing or barcode. By default, no mini toolbar is shown; Toolbars and Mini Toolbars shows how to turn them on and change their groups.
RulerBar and StatusBar
A RulerBar shows and sets indents, margins and tabs. An application usually has two: a horizontal ruler above the text and a vertical ruler beside it. The StatusBar shows the input position, the page, the section, the language and the zoom factor. Rulers and Status Bar describes the scale units, page margins and cell references of the rulers, and the areas and labels of the status bar.
Next Steps
- Add Rulers, Toolbars, and a Status Bar: build an editor with a button bar, rulers and a status bar.
- Create a Ribbon Application with Sidebar Support: build an editor with a ribbon, a RibbonForm and sidebars.
- Ribbon and UI: the built-in tabs, custom commands, mini toolbars, themes and localization in detail.
- Sidebar: the panels that the ribbon's buttons open beside the editor.