Copy | 2,000 Things You Should Know About WPF

#1,094 – Disabling Editing Operations in a TextBox

June 16, 2014 2 Comments

You can disable the cut/copy/paste features in a TextBox by handling the CommandManager.PreviewCanExecute event and checking for the associated editing commands.

A TextBox has implicit command bindings to support cut, copy, and paste commands. When the user executes one of these commands, using the context menu or a keyboard shortcut, the associated routed command is executed, with the TextBox as the source. You can short-circuit the command by intercepting PreviewCanExecute and making sure that CanExecute returns false.

Markup:

        <TextBox Name="txtSomeText"
                 CommandManager.PreviewCanExecute="txtSomeText_PreviewCanExecute"
                 Width="220" Height="25" Margin="10"/>

Code-behind:

        private void txtSomeText_PreviewCanExecute(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            if ((e.Command == ApplicationCommands.Cut) ||
                (e.Command == ApplicationCommands.Copy) ||
                (e.Command == ApplicationCommands.Paste))
            {
                e.Handled = true;
                e.CanExecute = false;
            }
        }

The editing functions are now disabled. The context menu in the TextBox shows the commands greyed out and corresponding keyboard shortcuts do nothing.

Filed under Controls Tagged with Controls, Copy, Cut, Paste, TextBox, WPF

#933 – Cut/Copy/Paste Functionality in a TextBox

October 22, 2013 1 Comment

Cut, Copy and Paste functionality is automatically enabled for the text within a TextBox control.

You can select text in a TextBox by

Left-clicking and dragging with the mouse
Double-clicking to select a word
Moving the arrow keys while holding down the Shift key
Pressing Ctrl+A to select all text in the TextBox

With text selected, you can Cut or Copy selected text by

Right-clicking and selecting Cut or Copy from the context menu
Pressing Ctrl+X to Cut text (remove from TextBox and add to clipboard)
Pressing Ctrl+C to Copy text (add to clipboard without removing)

You can Paste text from the clipboard into the TextBox at the current cursor location by

Right-clicking and selecting Paste from the context menu
Pressing Ctrl+V to Paste text

If you currently have text selected, doing a Paste operation will replace the selected text with text from the clipboard.

Filed under Controls Tagged with Controls, Copy, Cut, Paste, TextBox, WPF

#718 – Copying Text To and From the Clipboard

December 24, 2012 Leave a comment

You can copy data to or from the Windows clipboard using static methods in the System.Windows.Clipboard class.

Here’s an example that copies text from a TextBox onto the clipboard and pastes text from the clipboard into a Label.

    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition/>
            <ColumnDefinition/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <TextBox Name="txtFrom" Text="Twas the Night Before Christmas.." Margin="10"/>
        <Button Grid.Column="1" Content="Copy"
                HorizontalAlignment="Left" Padding="10,5" Margin="10"
                Click="btnCopy_Click"/>

        <Label Name="lblTo" Grid.Row="1" Content="Paste something here"
               Margin="10"/>
        <Button Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Content="Paste"
                VerticalAlignment="Top" HorizontalAlignment="Left"
                Padding="10,5" Margin="10"
                Click="btnPaste_Click"/>
    </Grid>

The Click handlers use the SetText and GetText methods of the Clipboard class to interact with the clipboard. The SetText method copies data to the clipboard. The GetText method pastes data from the clipboard.

        private void btnCopy_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            Clipboard.SetText(txtFrom.Text);
        }

        private void btnPaste_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            lblTo.Content = Clipboard.GetText();
        }