Rich text that is…

March 27, 2007 – Have you ever needed the text formatting capabilities of a word processor within your application? Wouldn't it be great to allow your users to generate text within an input field with multiple fonts, character sizes, colours, indentation, bullet points, etc in memo fields – all without the use of an external utility?

Well with build 9170.1 of PxPlus, now you can. We have just added a new Rich Text Word processor control to the system that gives you and you users direct access to RTF formatted data and word processor style editing within a standard PxPlus Multi-line.

So instead of using just plain text for notes and message within your application, your user will be able to include Rich Text documents. For example:

The system allows you and/or your users to select any Windows font for any portion of the document. This includes the ability to select Bold, Italics, and Underline, even Strikeout or Embossed fonts. Text can be in any colour using the standard 16 colours or any 24-bit colour definition.

Paragraph formatting options include left, right or centering with indentation from the left or right margins. There is also the ability to define a different indentation setting for the second and subsequent lines of a paragraph that provides first line indentation or hanging first lines. The system even includes the ability to use a variety of 'Bullet' marks within your text.

Ctrl-F and F3 provide direct access to a built in find interface that can scan the text for strings of up to 200 characters in length. The user can specify the search to be case sensitive or not, whether a 'Whole Word' match is required as well as the direction to search through the text. F3 provides a shortcut to repeat the last search.

Compatibility is key

The RTF formatted data used by this new control is fully compatible with most word processors such as Microsoft Word and Open Office. This means you can easily exchange data between word processors and this control without the loss of data or any formatting information.

Creating a RTF document is as easy as reading the contents of the control and writing it to a file with a ".rtf" suffix. Loading the control is no different, just open any RTF file and copy its contents directly into the control.

This level of compatibility makes writing interfaces to word processors a snap.

We really can't make it much easier than this.

Ahh… But what about Printing?

Not only have we added Rich Text support but we have also made a number of significant enhancements to the printing system within PxPlus.

How often have you tried to output varying amounts of text with a proportional font size and tried to figure out how much to print and how to place the output? It’s a common requirement and something that hasn't been easy to accomplish, at least until now.

PxPlus has addressed this need with a new feature called 'Block mode' printing. This new type of printing allows the application to specify a region where a block of data is to print. After printing as much data as it can, the system will return how much was printed and the amount of space (vertically) actually used. This information provides the application the information it needs to split the output across pages or to position and output multiple blocks of printed text on the same page.

Included with this new feature is the ability to print RTF data directly to WINPRT devices and soon it will include the same capabilities for PDF output.

Speaking of PDF, in response to a number of requests from our clients, we have added a PDF view capability that allows for use of the PDF interface instead of the standard viewer. This not only greatly simplifies the viewing process, but also minimizes any discrepancies between viewed output and printed output.

For more information on the following items, please review the links below:

• RTF Word processor control
• Block mode text printing
• PDF Viewer and Default settings