What's New in TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0
The following features are new or have been improved in TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0:
New and Updated Features
- Text Frames
Freely placeable and programmable text frames can be inserted and positioned as characters or geometrically relative to a paragraph or a page.
- Anchored Images
Images can be anchored to a specific paragraph and thus maintain their geometrical position, in relation to the paragraph to which they are anchored.
- New Object Attribute Dialog Box
New built-in dialog box for all image, text frame and object attributes. Settings such as size, layout, position, filename, format, resolution and compression can be adjusted.
- Image Improvements
Simply switch between the image position modes: convert an image inserted as character to an image at a fixed position or anchor it to a paragraph using the new dialog box.
- Table Formatting
Now it is possible to insert page breaks inside of a table, keep table rows together on one page and to specify the table cell height.
As in previous versions, TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 ships in three editions: Starting with the Express edition that offers basic word processing functionality, the Professional edition is everything developers require to create high-end word processing applications. The Enterprise edition builds on the Professional edition and in addition offers fully integrated XML and CSS support.
Text Frames
TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 introduces freely placeable and fully programmable text frames.
A text frame is a rectangle that can be filled with text, tables or marked text fields and may be edited just like any other text in the main word processing document. All of TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0's formatting options may be applied to text in a text frame.
Text frames are a very popular feature that enable end users to design documents such as letters and invoices. End users simply need to draw a text frame at the desired position and type in some text. This is ideal to position an address field in a document.
Text frames can be positioned like images - either geometrically or as a single character. Geometrically, their position can be either relative to a paragraph or relative to a document's page.
Label Printing
Printing address labels or badges is a common task for word processing applications.
Using TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0's precise text frame positioning, end users can simply create and populate a page of labels automatically. The content of the label may consist of fully formatted text, complete with images, bar codes and logos. The resulting document can be printed to standardized printer labels and / or badges.
Mail Merge
Similarly, mail merge applications can benefit from TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0's text frames. Marked text fields in a text frame can be accessed independently from other fields in the current document.
This enables end users to merge all fields in a specific text frame without having to iterate through all fields in the document. This results in improved performance during the merging process and gives developers a better overview of grouped fields.
Fully Adjustable
All settings related to text frames can be accessed from program code or via the new tabbed object dialog box.
It is possible to change the behavior of a text frame after inserting it into the document. The position, style, alignment, size or background color be adjusted using the dialog box.
The different tabs are illustrated in the screenshots below:
Layout and Position
Size and Distance
Frame and Color
Anchored Images
In prior versions, images and OLE objects could either be inserted as a single character or geometrically positioned, relative to the complete document.
Anchored to a paragraph
TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 introduces a third method that is called anchored to a paragraph. This means that the text still flows around the image or OLE object, but the geometrical position is relative to the paragraph to which it is anchored. If more text is inserted before the paragraph, the object is moved along with the text. Consider the following screenshots:
Anchored to paragraph image, center horizontal aligned image
Image Attributes Dialog Box
The image in the screenshot above left is anchored to the paragraph with a centered horizontal alignment, so that the text still flows around the image and the image is moved with the paragraph.
Additionally, images can now be anchored at an exact position on a specified page. Using this new layout setting, images can be placed at exactly the same position on all pages in a document.
All settings can be specified through TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0's properties and methods or by using the new tabbed style object dialog boxes.
Object Dialog Boxes
Text Frame Attributes Dialog Box
A new tabbed dialog box has been implemented to set and adjust all properties of inserted images, objects and text frames. It may be used to set general attributes such as size, text wrapping, scaling and text distances. Additionally, there is a special tab to set background color and frame attributes for text frames. The screenshots below illustrate the three tabs of the new dialog box:
Layout and Position
Size and Distance
Frame and Color
Image Attributes Dialog Box
As of TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0, the compression and resolution of exported images can be set. A new dialog box allows end users to set the filename, format, resolution and compression of exported images. Similarly, whether image data should be embedded in the main document, or stored as external files may be set. This is illustrated in the screenshot below.
Image Saving Options
New Event for Text Frames and Images
Also new in TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 is an event for text frames and images. By trapping this event, developers can add a pop-up menu on a right-mouse click, for example, to offer end users direct access to these new dialog boxes.
Image Improvements
TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 offers a new mouse interface for integrated objects such as images and text frames.
Drag & Drop Objects
Objects can be moved and resized in every insertion mode and without pressing an additional keys (as was the case in previous TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms versions).
A selection frame with size handles shows the current selection state.
Toggle Wrapping Mode
The wrapping mode can be toggled using the new tabbed dialog boxes. This enables end users to convert from an inline object to a fixed object with text that flows around it.
Additionally, it is possible to specify whether objects should be movable or resizable using the mouse.
Table Improvements
TX Text Control .NET for Windows Forms 12.0 introduces a range of new table improvements that make table programming and handling more flexible and sophisticated.
Superior Formatting Options
Additional features have been added to give end users more control of how tables are formatted at page breaks. A new formatting attribute is available that can be used to specify that a complete row is moved onto the next page, if at least one line of text has already been pushed onto the next page.
This is important for various applications such as report generators where long data lists are created and a complete entry (for instance a specific article) should be visible on the same page.
Additionally, in version 12.0, it is now possible to insert a forced page break at any cell in a table, using the CTRL+ENTER key combination.
This causes the whole table row to move onto the next page.
Specify Minimum Cell Height
Until version 12.0, only cell widths could be adjusted. With the goal of creating aesthetically pleasing tables, a minimum cell height can now be specified. Should a cell contain more content that the minimum height of the cell allows, it grows in order to accommodate the additional content.
This results in better looking documents when imported from Microsoft Word or HTML.
New Tabbed Dialog Boxes
All of these features can be set using the new built in dialog box (see screenshots below) or directly from program code, using the TableCellAttribute property (ActiveX) or the TableCell and the TableRow class (.NET). Additional elements have been added to the dialog box to adjust the table frame in detail. It is possible to set the cell frame and the background color for every single table cell. Possible values for the frame styles are: None, Box, All and Grid.
Frame and Color
Size and Formatting
