Replace {TAB} indent with individual spaces

[AceInfinity]

I have a notepad I'm creating, but i've tried everything I could think of to replace a tab indent with spaces on keys.tab event.

When I press the Tab key I want it to replace the tab indent with 4 individual spaces. Like as if I was to press the space bar 4 times, only that would be done automatically upon pressing the tab key on my keyboard.

I'm using a richtextbox control. I have a tab settings form, where I will be able to give users an option to choose how many spaces the tab key will represent. I just need to figure out how to replace the {TAB}.

so far, I have the number of spaces correct, but the last space in the series after pressing my tab key seems a bit larger than the rest of the spaces, and is not a real (normal) space character. That puts everything out of line when i'm typing on a new line. the characters don't line up vertically and when I press the space key however many times i've set the {Tab} key to represent, the tab key even though it should have the same number of spaces occupies a larger distance horizontally if that makes sense.

[jmcilhinney]

The first thing that comes to mind is handling the KeyDown event, cancelling it and then setting the SelectedText.

[AceInfinity]

I've already tried:

Private Sub RichTextBox1_TabKey(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles RichTextBox1.KeyDown
        If e.KeyCode = Keys.Tab Then

                RichTextBox1.SelectedText = "  "
                e.Handled = True
       End If
end sub

[jmcilhinney]

Private Sub RichTextBox1_KeyDown(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles RichTextBox1.KeyDown
    If e.KeyData = Keys.Tab Then
        e.SuppressKeyPress = True
        Me.RichTextBox1.SelectedText = "    "
    End If
End Sub

Make sure AcceptsTab is set to True for the control.

[AceInfinity]

Amazing, it worked Thankyou. I spent hours trying to figure this out with different methods like trimming that weird "space" off the end, and trying to limit the number of characters, etc..

If I would have known how simple this was before...

[jmcilhinney]

One thing I probably should have pointed out earlier: note that I'm using KeyData rather than KeyCode. That ensures that the code only responds to Tab alone and not Ctrl+Tab or any other combination involving a modifier key.

[AceInfinity]

alright, thanks for the help though I knew KeyData was there, I didn't change it though. I typed it all in myself trying to understand your code so that I could modify it to fit my needs. You've been a great help for me though, and I appreciate that a lot.

[jmcilhinney]

If you want to know more about keyboard events, the difference between KeyCode and KeyData, etc, follow the Blog link in my signature and check out my post on the subject.