Colouring RTF Boxes

I was wondering if there was a way to make it so that anything following certain criteria would colour it a certain way for instance making any text within brackets green or the word following '/' red. I'm just starting out with VB so forgive me if this is a noobish question :P

Hello Solg,
Take a look at the link called The Project Here
Best Regards,
ERAN

Welcome to Forums, Solg! :wave:

Yes, you can do that - that's the basic purpose of RTB: formatting text.
Here is a small routine that underlines selected text. You can modify it as you wish:

VB Code:

Public Sub UnderlineText(objRTB As Object, strFind As String)
'=============================================================
Dim intPos As Integer, i As Integer
 
    With objRTB
        For i = 1 To Len(.Text)
            If intPos = 0 Then
                intPos = InStr(1, LCase(objRTB.Text), LCase(strFind))
            ElseIf intPos > 0 Then
                intPos = InStr(intPos + Len(strFind), LCase(objRTB.Text), LCase(strFind))
            End If
            If Not intPos = -1 Then
                If Not intPos = 0 Then .SelStart = intPos - 1
                .SelLength = Len(strFind)
                .SelBold = True
                .SelUnderline = True
            End If
        Next i
    End With
 
End Sub
 
'usage:
Private Sub Command1_Click()
'============================
Dim strFind As String
 
    strFind = InputBox("Find Text To Highlight", "Find Text", "text")
    UnderlineText RichTextBox1, LCase(strFind)
 
End Sub

Hi guys, thanks for the responses but thats not quite what I was looking for. I was thinking that it would be for instance /text and (text) and it would occur with any text not just preprogrammed words or ones that need users to enter anything. :ehh: :wave:

What would the colors be based on? If you can provide instances that work in all conditions, then you can program it in. If you have a / up to a ), then you could colorize the first and last word.

The colours would be set by a variable I guess I'd like them to be customizable :p and it'd just be one word within so coloring the first and last word wouldn't be necasary as they'd be one and the same.

I don't know what first and last would be though. That's what I was asking. I just used an example.

I'm still not entirely sure what you mean, the beginning would be the symbol / then next would be any word that the user chooses to put in and it would be a color I define in a variable and then a space and then the following text would be black again or something to that effect. :p


Example: Hello I am Solg, how /are you?

So, you want to start at the first "/" and then change the color of everything up to the first space? That could cause problems, but it could be done. If you add a closing tag, it would be more generic.

I could add a closing tag using "\" or something if it would make the program better :p


Like /this?\

That would be much better. Use the .Find method, which will return the location of a string in a rtb. Change the "\" to "", and then Set .SelStart to the position. Then do the same for the "\". Then use .SelStart to the original location, and .SelLength to the difference between "\" and "/".
This will highlight the word you want colored. Once it's highlighted, you can use .SelColor to change it.

Could you explain how I'd use .Find I never have before :p

Take a look at this sample. I didn't write it all, but it does colorize any word that you choose, and also tells you what line you click on.

Hello dglienna,
I tried your code but had to add few things:

VB Code:

[B]Private Const EM_LINEINDEX = &HBB[/B]
 
Private Sub RichTextBox1_Click()
 
 
    Dim strBuffer As String
    Dim lngLength As Long
    Dim intCurrentLine As Integer
    Dim lngLineNumber As Long
    [B]Dim lngLineIndex As Long[/B]
 
        With RichTextBox1
        intCurrentLine = .GetLineFromChar(.SelStart)
        [B]lngLineIndex = SendMessage(.hwnd, EM_LINEINDEX, intCurrentLine, 0)[/B]
        'get line length
        lngLength = SendMessage(.hwnd, EM_LINELENGTH, [B]lngLineIndex[/B], 0)
        'resize buffer
        strBuffer = Space(lngLength)
        'get line text
        Call SendMessage(.hwnd, EM_GETLINE, intCurrentLine, ByVal strBuffer)
        
        lngLineNumber = .GetLineFromChar(.SelStart)
        MsgBox "You selected line number " & lngLineNumber + 1 & " which says " & strBuffer
    End With
End Sub

I had to add the bold parts to your code to get the whole line... :thumb:

Best Regards,
ERAN

My code ran fine for me. I just tested it again. It selects the whole line in the rtb when you click on a line, and the replace works on all instances of a phrase.

Okay I'm sorry to keep doing this and I thank you guys for being so helpful but I've been messing with this for a couple days or so and I can't seem to get it to work right. Its for a script editor for a game I play if anyone is wondering I want it to change it as its being typed out not just when a button is hit and thats where I run into problems.

Example for script when done again if anyone is wondering:
"When someone moves over here"
"Set variable /variablename\ to 3"

Also should be red for /v, /va, /var etc. etc. though Its giving me LOADS of headaches all help is appreciated :p

I think you could use the keypress event of a TEXTBOX that colorizes words and then puts them into an RTB, but it is likely to be kind of slow.

What do you suggest as I do for that codewise? :p

Okay I have had to put down this project due to school but have picked it up again. I have fiddled with it and come up with this so far..

VB Code:

Private Sub rtfMain_Change()
         Call SyntaxHighlight
End Sub
 
Private Function SyntaxHighlight()
Dim lngHighlight As Long
Dim strVariableStart As String
Dim lngLength As Long
Dim strSpace As String
Dim lngEndHighlight As Long
 
strVariableStart = "/"
strSpace = " "
lngHighlight = (rtfMain.Find(strVariableStart) + 1)
 
lngEndHighlight = rtfMain.Find(strSpace, lngHighlight)
 
lngLength = (lngHighlight - lngEndHighlight)
 
rtfMain.SelStart = lngHighlight
rtfMain.SelLength = lngLength
rtfMain.SelColor = vbRed
rtfMain.SelStart = Len(rtfMain.Text)
rtfMain.SelLength = 0
End Function

This actually works for the colouring part but when I press space to continue on with the text it gives me an error I go into debugging and it says that lngLength is actually the negative of whatever it should be. So I tried multiplying it by -1 but that didn't work, any suggestions?

hello, i m using rtf control in my program vb6. i want its backcolor transparent like label. plz tell me how is it possible

Hello waqqas,
Welcome to VBForums :wave:

I think you had to open a new Thread for you question but never mind that...

How about this?
set the rtb BackColor to &H8000000F&

if you want to do it on run time just put this line on your Form_Load event:

VB Code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    RichTextBox1.BackColor = &H8000000F
End Sub

Or use this :

VB Code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    RichTextBox1.BackColor = Label1.BackColor
End Sub

Edit:
you can just use this:

VB Code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    RichTextBox1.BackColor = Form1.BackColor
End Sub

If you want the rtb to look exactly like a label you can do this:

VB Code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    RichTextBox1.BackColor = Form1.BackColor
    RichTextBox1.Appearance = rtfFlat
    RichTextBox1.BorderStyle = rtfNoBorder
End Sub

Best Regards,
ERAN