Text Navigation in Windows Forms Syntax Editor

29 Apr 20216 minutes to read

The EditControl offers extensive support for text navigation. You can perform navigation at the character, word, line, page, or entire document levels. This section briefly explains navigation of text in the EditControl.

Character based navigation

The following functions enables text navigation in the EditControl in terms of characters or columns.

Functions	Description
MoveUp	Moves cursor up, if possible.
MoveDown	Moves cursor down, if possible.
MoveLeft	Moves cursor left, if possible.
MoveRight	Moves cursor right, if possible.

C#

this.editControl1.MoveUp();

this.editControl1.MoveDown();

this.editControl1.MoveLeft();

this.editControl1.MoveRight();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.MoveUp()

Me.editControl1.MoveDown()

Me.editControl1.MoveLeft()

Me.editControl1.MoveRight()

Word based navigation

The following functions enables text navigation in the EditControl in terms of words.

Functions	Description
MoveLeftWord	Moves caret to the left by one word.
MoveRightWord	Moves caret to the right by one word.

C#

this.editControl1.MoveLeftWord();

this.editControl1.MoveRightWord();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.MoveLeftWord()

Me.editControl1.MoveRightWord()

Line based navigation

The following functions enables text navigation in the EditControl in terms of lines.

Functions	Description
MoveToLineStart	Moves caret to the beginning of the line. First whitespace will be skipped.
MoveToLineEnd	Moves caret to the end of the line.

C#

this.editControl1.MoveToLineStart();

this.editControl1.MoveToLineEnd();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.MoveToLineStart()

Me.editControl1.MoveToLineEnd()

Page based navigation

The following functions enables text navigation in the EditControl in terms of pages.

Functions	Description
MovePageUp	Moves caret one page up.
MovePageDown	Moves caret one page down.

C#

this.editControl1.MovePageUp();

this.editControl1.MovePageDown();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.MovePageUp()

Me.editControl1.MovePageDown()

Block based navigation

Position the keyboard cursor at the beginning and end of the indentation block by using the JumpToIndentBlockStart and JumpToIndentBlockEnd functions respectively.

C#

this.editControl1.JumpToIndentBlockStart();

this.editControl1.JumpToIndentBlockEnd();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.JumpToIndentBlockStart()

Me.editControl1.JumpToIndentBlockEnd()

Document based navigation

The following functions enables text navigation in the EditControl in terms of documents.

Functions	Description
MoveToBeginning	Moves caret to the beginning of the file.
MoveToEnd	Moves caret to the end of the file.

C#

this.editControl1.MoveToBeginning();

this.editControl1.MoveToEnd();

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.MoveToBeginning()

Me.editControl1.MoveToEnd()

Retrieve current word

Retrieves the current word in the EditControl by using the GetCurrentWord function.

C#

Console.WriteLine(this.editControl1.GetCurrentWord().ToString());

VB.NET

Me.WriteLine(this.editControl1.GetCurrentWord().ToString())

Retrieve current column index in line

Retrieves the current word column index in the EditControl by using the GetCurrentWordColumn function and CurrentColumn property.

C#

Console.WriteLine(this.editControl1.GetCurrentWordColumn().ToString());

Console.WriteLine(this.editControl1.CurrentColumn);

VB.NET

Me.WriteLine(this.editControl1.GetCurrentWordColumn().ToString())

Me.WriteLine(this.editControl1.CurrentColumn)

Retrieve current line index

Retrieves the current word column index in the EditControl by using the CurrentLine property.

C#

Console.WriteLine(this.editControl1.CurrentLine);

VB.NET

Me.WriteLine(this.editControl1.CurrentLine)

NOTE

Refer to the following sample link that demonstrates the text navigation functionalities in the EditControl:
C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Syncfusion\EssentialStudio\Version Number\Windows\Edit.Windows\Samples\Text Navigation\Text Navigation

Scrolling

The EditControl offers extremely smooth scrolling behavior by using the idle-time processing and dynamic scroll area expansion techniques. The scrolling behavior is smooth even when loading large files though the EditControl scrolls by several hundred lines for a small movement of the scroller.

The scrollers in the EditControl can be optionally shown or hidden by using the following properties.

Properties	Description
ShowVerticalScroller	Specifies a value indicating whether the vertical scroller can be shown or not.
ShowHorizontalScroller	Specifies a value indicating whether the horizontal scroller can be shown or not.
AlwaysShowScrollers	Specifies a value indicating whether scrollers should always be visible or not.

C#

// Display the Horizontal Scroller.

this.editControl1.ShowHorizontalScroller = true;

// Display the Vertical Scroller.

this.editControl1.ShowVerticalScroller = true;

this.editControl1.AlwaysShowScrollers = true;

VB.NET

// Display the Horizontal Scroller.

Me.editControl1.ShowHorizontalScroller = True

// Display the Vertical Scroller.

Me.editControl1.ShowVerticalScroller = True

Me.editControl1.AlwaysShowScrollers = True

Supports scroller events that are raised when the scroll arrows are clicked. The scroller events are used to synchronize the scrolling of multiple EditControls.

Scroll position and offsets

The scroll position and offsets of the EditControl are set by using the following properties.

Properties	Description
ScrollPosition	Specifies scroll position of the EditControl.
ScrollOffsetBottom	Specifies the bottom scroll offset.
ScrollOffsetLeft	Specifies the left scroll offset.
ScrollOffsetRight	Specifies the right scroll offset.
ScrollOffsetTop	Specifies the top scroll offset.

C#

this.editControl1.ScrollPosition = new Point(1, 5);

this.editControl1.ScrollOffsetBottom = 5;

this.editControl1.ScrollOffsetLeft = 10;

this.editControl1.ScrollOffsetTop = 5;

this.editControl1.ScrollOffsetTop = 10;

VB.NET

Me.editControl1.ScrollPosition = New Point(1, 5) 

Me.editControl1.ScrollOffsetBottom = 5 

Me.editControl1.ScrollOffsetLeft = 10 

Me.editControl1.ScrollOffsetTop = 5 

Me.editControl1.ScrollOffsetTop = 10