Classes by Task

Which classes do you need to format text, fill a table, add a toolbar or merge a template? The .NET reference sorts the classes of TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms by namespace; the sections below sort them by the task they solve. Each section starts from the entry point on TextControl, the control on your form, names the classes and members you work with and links the topic pages that show them in code.

Every class and member links to its page in the class library reference. TextControl and ServerTextControl share most of the document members, so a row that names TextControl.Tables applies to ServerTextControl.Tables as well. The events that react to the mouse, such as ImageClicked or TableFormatChanged, the toolbars, the ribbon and the dialog boxes exist only for TextControl. The last section, Base Classes and Interfaces, shows which classes share a base class.

Character Formatting

Character attributes such as font, size, color and underline are properties of the current selection. On an empty selection, they apply to the text typed or inserted next.

Explained in Text and Paragraph Formatting and Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets.

Paragraph Formatting

Explained in Text and Paragraph Formatting and Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets.

Stylesheet Formatting

Users apply and edit styles with the built-in dialog box; your code learns about their changes through events.

Explained in Stylesheets. The classes that define styles in code are listed in Styles.

Sections and Pages

A document is divided into sections, and each section defines its own page size, margins, columns and page border.

Explained in Sections and Page Layout and Sections, Pages, Headers, and Footers.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Explained in Bullets and Numbered Lists and Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets.

Toolbars

The button bar, the ruler bars and the status bar are separate Windows Forms controls that you connect to a TextControl through its properties. Mini toolbars appear next to the selected text or object.

Explained in Toolbars and Mini Toolbars, Rulers and Status Bar and Themes, Colors, and Icons.

Ribbons

The ribbon is a Windows Forms tab control with predefined tabs for all features of the editor. It is connected to a TextControl like the toolbars.

Explained in Built-in Ribbon Tabs, Custom Tabs and Commands, Sidebar and Panels and Localization and Resource Kit.

Loading and Saving

Explained in Loading and Saving Documents, Loading Documents, Saving and Converting Documents, Document Properties, Attachments and Signing PDF Documents. Data Binding and Database Storage stores documents in a database.

Printing and Print Preview

Explained in Printing and Print Preview and Printing.

Tables

Explained in Tables and Table Formulas and Tables and Calculations. Formula Functions lists the functions a formula can call.

Headers and Footers

Explained in Headers and Footers and Sections, Pages, Headers, and Footers.

Images

Explained in Images and Images, Text Frames, and Shapes.

Text Frames

Explained in Text Frames and Shapes and Images, Text Frames, and Shapes.

Charts

Explained in Charts and Barcodes of the Document Editor, Charts and Barcodes of Document Processing and Integrating Charts and Barcodes.

Barcodes

Explained in Charts and Barcodes and, for templates, in Images and Barcodes of Mail Merge and Reporting.

Drawings and Shapes

Explained in Text Frames and Shapes and Images, Text Frames, and Shapes.

Hypertext Links

Explained in Fields, Hyperlinks, and Bookmarks and Fields and Subtext Parts.

Signature Fields

Explained in Signature Fields of the Document Editor and Signature Fields and Signature Appearance of Digital Signatures.

Form Fields

Explained in Form Fields and Conditional Instructions, Forms and Conditional Instructions and Conditional Instructions.

Selections and Input Position

Explained in Selections and Caret Position.

Text Fields

Explained in Fields, Hyperlinks, and Bookmarks and Fields and Subtext Parts.

Spell Checking and Hyphenation

Explained in Spell Checking and Hyphenation and Integrating TX Spell .NET for Windows Forms.

Clipboard

Explained in Clipboard Operations and Drag and Drop.

Undo

Explained in Undo and Redo.

Find and Replace

Explained in Search and Replace and Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets.

Viewing and Zooming

Explained in Viewing, Zooming, and Navigation.

Restricted Access

Explained in Document Protection and Editable Regions and Document Protection and User Permissions.

Tracked Changes

Explained in Track Changes and Comments and Tracked Changes.

Comments

Explained in Comments and Comments and Tracked Changes.

Control Settings

Explained in Architecture and Control Lifecycle, TextControl, Themes, Colors, and Icons, Context Menus, Font Embedding and Substitution and Licensing of Troubleshooting.

Paragraphs as Objects

Explained in Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets and Selections and Caret Position.

Lines and Characters

Explained in Selections and Caret Position.

Text Parts

A document consists of text parts: the main text, headers and footers, text frames and footnote sections. Each of them implements IFormattedText, the interface with the collections that the sections above describe for the main text.

Explained in Architecture and Control Lifecycle, Document Object Model, Subtext Parts and Fields and Subtext Parts.

Styles

Explained in Stylesheets and Text, Paragraphs, and Stylesheets.

Tables of Contents

Explained in Tables of Contents.

Footnotes

Explained in Footnotes.

Mail Merge

Explained in Overview, Data Sources and Merge Events of Mail Merge and Reporting.

Word Fields and Content Controls

The classes of TXTextControl.DocumentServer.Fields are field adapters: they wrap an ApplicationField and give typed access to Microsoft Word fields, legacy form fields and content controls.

Explained in Content Controls and Word Form Fields, Merge Fields and Conditional Content.

PDF Forms

Explained in Creating AcroForms, Reading Form Fields and Values and Text Extraction.

Reporting

Explained in Data Sources, Merge Blocks, Nested Blocks and Master-Detail Reports, Sorting and Filtering and Reporting Ribbon and Dialog Boxes.

XML

Explained in XML Processing.

Exceptions

Explained in Exceptions and Error Handling.

Base Classes and Interfaces

Many classes share a base class that defines their common members. The reference documents a member on the base class, so a property such as Location of an image is found on the page of FrameBase. The hierarchy below lists the base classes the reference documents and the Windows Forms classes the controls derive from; each class name is linked in the table after it.

System.Windows.Forms.Control
├── TextControl (implements IFormattedText)
├── ButtonBar
├── RulerBar
├── StatusBar
└── Drawing.TXDrawingControl

System.ComponentModel.Component
├── ServerTextControl (implements IFormattedText)
├── DocumentServer.MailMerge
└── DocumentServer.DocumentController

System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown
└── MiniToolbar
    ├── TextMiniToolbar
    └── ObjectMiniToolbar

System.Windows.Forms.TabControl       System.Windows.Forms.TabPage
└── Windows.Forms.Ribbon.Ribbon       └── Windows.Forms.Ribbon.RibbonTab
                                          └── RibbonFormattingTab and the other predefined tabs

System.Windows.Forms.Panel            Windows.Forms.Ribbon.RibbonButton
└── Windows.Forms.Ribbon.RibbonGroup  ├── RibbonToggleButton
    └── HorizontalRibbonGroup         └── RibbonMenuButton
                                          └── RibbonSplitButton

FrameBase
├── Image
├── TextFrame (implements IFormattedText)
├── SignatureField
├── DataVisualization.ChartFrame
├── DataVisualization.BarcodeFrame
└── DataVisualization.DrawingFrame

FrameBaseCollection
├── ImageCollection
├── TextFrameCollection
├── SignatureFieldCollection
├── FrameCollection
├── DataVisualization.ChartCollection
├── DataVisualization.BarcodeCollection
└── DataVisualization.DrawingCollection

TableBaseCollection
└── TableCollection

TablePartCollection
├── TableRowCollection
├── TableColumnCollection
└── TableCellCollection

TextField
├── ApplicationField
├── HypertextLink
├── DocumentLink
├── PageNumberField
└── FormField
    ├── TextFormField
    ├── CheckFormField
    ├── SelectionFormField
    └── DateFormField

TextFieldCollectionBase
├── TextFieldCollection
├── ApplicationFieldCollection
├── HypertextLinkCollection
├── DocumentLinkCollection
├── PageNumberFieldCollection
└── FormFieldCollection

FormattingStyle                   FormattingStyleCollection
├── ParagraphStyle                ├── ParagraphStyleCollection
└── InlineStyle                   └── InlineStyleCollection

LoadSaveSettingsBase
├── LoadSettings
└── SaveSettings

IFormattedText is implemented by TextControl, ServerTextControl, MainText, HeaderFooter, TextFrame, FootnoteText and FootnoteSection. Code written against the interface works with the main text and with every other text part, in the editor and without it.

The exception classes FilterException, FormulaException, NumberFormatException, LicenseLevelException, TextEditorException and MergeCanceledException derive from System.Exception. Most event argument classes derive from System.EventArgs; CannotTrackChangeEventArgs and BlockMergingEventArgs derive from System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs.

Related Pages

• .NET API: the namespaces of the class library and where to start in each.
• Formula Functions: the functions of table formulas.
• Document Editor: the TextControl on a form, its ribbon, toolbars and dialog boxes.
• Document Processing: the tasks of the document model in code.
• Mail Merge and Reporting: templates, data sources and merge blocks.
• PDF Processing: creating PDF documents and reading forms, attachments and text.