As I’ve said many times now, if you want to guess what will be coming in future versions of DevExpress VCL, all you have to do is look at what our .NET teams have been adding to their suites right now. And this next new control fits the pattern exactly: let the .NET teams work out all the issues, then port the control to Delphi.
I am delighted therefore to announce the new rich edit control for VCL. Think of all the features you take for granted in Microsoft Word, but wrapped in a new Delphi-coded rich edit control, designed to work seamlessly with the other UI controls that are part of DevExpress VCL, such as the ribbon.
The initial version in v14.2 of this important control is marked as a CTP (Community Technology Preview). It’s fairly complete, but with a few less-polished edges that we’re intending to address over the next few months. It ships in v14.2 with the following features:
- Character and paragraph formatting
- Image support
- Styles
- Lists (bulleted, numbered and multilevel)
- Undo/Redo history
- Clipboard operations (cut, copy, paste)
- Overtype mode
- Text highlight
- Visual formatting marks, if needed
Not only that, but we’ve added a complete command API so that you can completely manage the operation of the control. This is done through the use of Action objects. By linking these Action objects to elements of your UI, such as ribbons, menus, and toolbars, you can easily create a powerful word processor in your application.
(Note that this control is marked as a CTP beta for v14.2. Although you can use the control as is, please be warned that it will change over the next few months as we polish it. Properties, methods and events may change for the final release. Also, currently the control is for 32-bit applications and only supports the RAD Studio XE series. Although a 64-bit version is in the works, we will not be back-porting it to RAD Studio 2010. It is only available in the full VCL Subscription.)