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Visual Basic Web Magazine Review
I have always dreamed of sitting down and writing my own word processor in Visual Basic. Well, that is as far as I ever got. One of the most popular functions for a computer is also a very difficult one to implement. Until now.
The TX Text Control Collection includes a set of tools including the best designed word processor and integrated rulers, button bars, and status bars I have ever seen. By setting a few properties and writing three lines of code, you have a fully functioning word processor, complete with formatting bar and status bar.
But not only is the TX Text Control easy to use. It is extremely powerful. Scaling from a simple rich textbox to a full-fledged desktop publisher with free text positioning and free text flow to a hypertext system, this control is worth its weight in gold.
All character formats you would expect are available and can be freely combined. Some of the features are: including foreground and background colors for text, flexible paragraph formatting such as indentations, four types of tabs, variable line and paragraph spacing, and paragraph frames (much like Word 97's Text boxes).
But not only does TX Text Control contain promise as a embeddable word-processor, but as an HTML hypertext editing and viewing tool. The Text Control allows the user to save any of his documents in HTML format, along with the custom format and RTF 1.4. The RTF format will open in WordPad, Word, WordPerfect, Ami Pro, and almost any mainstream word processor.
The TX Text Control comes with even more advanced features such as zoom (text is still edible no matter how far you zoom in any direction), image embedding (supports TIFF, BMP, WMF), and even OLE embedding in the 32-bit version. Yes, that's right, you can stick an Excel spreadsheet right into your TX Text Control document.
Not that you need Excel, because the TX Text Control has advanced table features as well. Any features mentioned above work in the table cells, including OLE objects and images.
Macro fields are also included for hypertext capabilities and mail merge applications. TX Text Control even allows you to connect the macro fields to database fields automatically!
Integrated dialogs take the rest of the work out of setting up this control. Included are dialogs for setting paragraph, text, and table formatting, as well as for searching and replacing. The samples are very helpful and include a full-blown MDI word processor and a complete desktop publisher. The samples are very well written and well commented.
The only faults I had with these controls are their "old-fashioned look." With everyone using Office '97, Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape Communicator, people expect flat toolbars. Well, you will be disappointed, because the ButtonBar control uses the boring raised buttons. The text control doesn't support a 3-D border like most controls do, so to make the TX Text Control look like today's professional application, you will probably want to draw some 3-D borders with the Line command, and implement the toolbar yourself, maybe using a tool like Sheridan's ActiveBar.
But all in all, the TX Text Control is well worth the money. It has features you would expect from a full fledged word processor, and adds support for hyperlinks, desktop-publishing style frames and flowing text, all working together quickly and easily. If you need word processing features, get TX Text Control.
