Word Processing - New Formatting Options (v18.2)

Both our Word (RTF) Document API and our Rich Text Editor (WinForms and WPF) will soon ship with enhanced paragraph and layout formatting options. 

Continuous Section Breaks

Continuous section break support is now available on all platforms. 

As you may already know, continuous section break starts a new section on the same page, so you can apply different layout options to page content. For example, you can split a page into two sections with a different number of columns in each.  

Our API allows you to manage this feature in code. Call the Document.InsertSection method to insert a new section and specify its StartType property as shown below: 

var section = document.InsertSection(document.Range.End);
section.StartType = sectionStartType.Continuous;

The DevExpress Rich Text Editor (WinForms and WPF) will include new UI elements to manage continuous section breaks. You can manage breaks using the Page Layout ribbon tab or the Page Layout dialog. 

Paragraph Formatting Options

We’ve also expanded the number of paragraph options available to you and your end-users. New options include: 

• Widow/Orphan control
  Prevents the first or last paragraph line from appearing at the bottom or top of a page.
• Keep with Next
  Keeps multiple paragraphs together so that they remain on the same page.
• Keep Lines Together
  We have enhanced the capabilities of the Keep Lines Together option. Use it to prevent a paragraph from splitting after a page break is inserted.

New paragraph options are available in code. Call the BeginUpdateParargaph method to access an instance of ParagraphOptions and specify new options as needed: 

var paragraphProperties = document.BeginUpdateParagraphs(document.Range);
paragraphProperties.KeepLinesTogether = true;
paragraphProperties.KeepWithNext = true;
paragraphProperties.WidowOrphanControl = true;
document.EndUpdateParagraphs(paragraphProperties);

These new options are available in the Paragraph dialog of the DevExpress Rich Text Editor (WinForms and WPF). 

Your feedback is important to us!

Many of the enhancements in this release are based on customer feedback. We thank you for your assistance and invaluable perspective. 

Feel free to make new suggestions using the DevExpress Support Center or in the comments below. 

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