In this example, you will learn a very simple way to add a Color and Font dialog control to your word/text application. You will also learn how to add a live "Character Counter" to your application as well
Part 1: Adding Color
Ok, first lets cover the required objects. You will need a Common Dialog Control and a Rich Text Box control, which can both be found under the Components section of VB5.0 or VB6.0...
So, once you have those added, lets set the names. First, click on the Common Dialog Control you just added. Its name should be auto set to "CommonDialog1" but, were gonna rename it to "CD1" to shorten it and make it easier. Next, click on the Rich Text Box Control you just added. Its name is usually set to "RichTextBox1" but, were gonna rename it to "RTB1." Please note, that you can change these to what ever you want later, but for now just use what I gave you.
Ok, now we have our required controls and we named them to what we want. So, lets add the code! You now need to create a button. Name the button "cmdColor" and set it's caption to "Edit Back Color." Once you have that done, double click the new button so you can edit its code.
Inside the code, you should see:
Private Sub cmdColor_Click()
End Sub
Now, time for the good stuff! In between the code you just read above, put this:
Dim SelectedColor As Long
CD1.Flags = cdlCCRGBInit
CD1.ShowColor
SelectedColor = CD1.Color
RTB1.BackColor = SelectedColor
Thats it! The code is very basic. Basically what it does, is when you click cmdColor, the Common Dialog will open the Color Dialog Table. Once you choose a color from that table and click Ok, it will save the color you chose as our variable "SelectedColor." After it saves the color, it then calls the color into the RichTextBox and sets it as its background! Sounds complicated, but its not! And dont worry about editing the Font Color, we'll get to that in a minute!
Part 2: Editing Font
This part gets a little more tricky and has a few more lines of code, but its still very simple to understand.
Now, create a new button right next to your old one and name it "cmdFont." After, set its caption to "Edit Font." After you got that, double click the button so you can edit the code. You should now see something like this:
Private Sub cmdFont_Click()
End Sub
Now, within that code you need to put this:
Dim TextColor As Long
Dim Bold As Boolean
Dim Italic As Boolean
Dim Underline As Boolean
Dim StrikeThru As Boolean
Dim Font As String
Dim Size As Integer
CD1.Flags = cdlCFEffects Or cdlCFBoth
CD1.ShowFont
TextColor = CD1.Color
Bold = CD1.FontBold
Italic = CD1.FontItalic
Underline = CD1.FontUnderline
StrikeThru = CD1.FontStrikeThru
Font = CD1.FontName
Size = CD1.FontSize
RTB1.SelFontName = Font
RTB1.SelFontSize = Size
RTB1.SelColor = TextColor
If Bold = True Then
RTB1.SelBold = Bold
If Italic = True Then
RTB1.SelItalic = Italic
If Underline = True Then
RTB1.SelUnderline = Underline
If StrikeThru = True Then
RTB1.SelStrikeThru = StrikeThru
End If
End If
End If
End If
Wow, that was alot of typing for me! But, thats it! Once you have that code inside the button, you can edit every aspect of the font in a RichTextBox.
Part 3: Real-Time Character Counter
This is very cool. This will count every character you type and tell you how much you've typed.
All you need to do is create a Label. You can put it anywhere you, but name it "lblCount" and clear its caption. Once you have done that you need to double click the Rich Text Box so you can edit the code. Once you do that, you should see:
Private Sub RTB1_Change()
End Sub
Now, within that code you need to put this:
Dim Text As String
Dim Count As Integer
Text = RTB1.Text
Count = Len(Text)
lblCount.Caption = Count
Thats it! You now have a Character Counter!
Well, I gotta go! Hope you learned something from this, enjoy! Please Vote!
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