Template for .rtf

using multiple richtextboxes. Set border to none and place them in a panel with border fixed3D.
Above the 3 richtextboxes but a label with the title.

form.png

If developer's richtextbox text length will increase a scroll bar will be appear :)

Is there a way to do this with a single rtb or is multiple the only way to go?  There's probably 50 or so Apps and there's probably a couple more titles I'll put in the rtb.  That's gonna be a lot of rtf files to house if I have to have a seperate rtf for each title.  It's not terrible I don't guess, but I'd rather have 1 file per app if possible.

One way as I see:

Public Class Form1

    Public list As List(Of String)
    Public templates() As String = New String() {"About", "Installation", "devlopers"}
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        LoadTemplates()
    End Sub

    Private Sub LoadTemplates()
        ComboBox1.Items.AddRange(CType(templates, Object))
        For Each i In ComboBox1.Items
            RichTextBox1.SelectionFont = New Font(RichTextBox1.SelectionFont.FontFamily, 14.0F, FontStyle.Bold) ' if default size is 12 you heading should be greater like 14
            RichTextBox1.Text += i.ToString() + ":" + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + vbCrLf
            RichTextBox1.SelectionFont = New Font(RichTextBox1.SelectionFont.FontFamily, FontStyle.Bold)
        Next
    End Sub
End Class

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RunTimeView.PNG

specify items in this array:

Public templates() As String = New String() {"About", "Installation", "devlopers" , ............}

it will load template from combobox.

Yes I know it is editable but template is a predefine structure, which is declared by the designer, so will just enter the text between headings.

Hello, coperations07,

Re: "That's gonna be a lot of rtf files to house if I have to have a seperate rtf for each title. "

I like wizzie83's suggestion.  You can combine the RTF from each of the RichTextBoxes before saving to a single file.  

Cheers,
Randy

Yeah I could combine, but that would change a lot. I would like to view and edit from the same form. I'd have to have a different rtb to bring the combined rtf back into so it could be viewed later. And it will also be edited when different versions, bug fixes,....etc happen.

Hi, coperations07,

Maybe I'm missing something because I don't know all of your requirements/constraints, but this doesn't seem so difficult to me.  

When you combine the sections, just embed your own "custom" RTF codes as delimiters.  Then when it is time to view (or edit) you use these delimiters to divide the imported RTF text into sections.  You could use a different "sub-code" for each section and use the sub-codes to allocate the sections to the appropriate RichTextBox.  This way, new sections introduced (or old sections removed) during version changes won't make pre-existing RTF files unusable.

Cheers,
Randy
p.s.  RTF reader applications should ignore codes they do not recognize, so as long as your custom codes are unique they should not cause problems for other apps that may read your files.

I think this is what I'm looking for omegaomega.  I'm not familiar with using rtf for anything like this, so this was kind of what I was asking.  Could you give me a good starting point for using sections w/ rtf?

thx,
Dave

Hello, coperations07,

See the attached snippet for a simple example using wizzie83's idea and the sections you have specified.  The form contains three RichTextBoxes with three corresponding labels, a TextBox that specifies the file name and two Buttons, one for loading the specified file and one for saving to the specified file.  For clarity I have attached an image of the sample application in use.

You will see that (unlike wizzie83's suggestion) I prefer to keep borders around the RichTextBoxes to show their boundaries.  As Shahan_Developer points out, scroll bars will appear if the text exceeds the boundaries, so we might as well show the user where those boundaries are.

Beginning and closing the main RTF section (as indicated in the comments within the cmdSave_Click method) allows the file saved by this application to be opened by other applications that can read RTF files (such as MS-Word).  

Cheers,
Randy

Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

        txtFile.Text = "D:\Tests\VB Trials\RTF Example\Sample1.rtf"

    End Sub

    Private Sub cmdSave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdSave.Click

        Dim swrFile As StreamWriter = Nothing
        Try
            swrFile = New StreamWriter(txtFile.Text)
            swrFile.Write("{\rtf1 ")    ' Begin main rtf section.
            swrFile.Write("\wwSection About: \par " & rtbAbout.Rtf)
            swrFile.Write("\wwSection Installation: \par " & rtbInstallation.Rtf)
            swrFile.Write("\wwSection Developer: \par " & rtbDeveloper.Rtf)
            swrFile.Write("}")          ' Close main rtf section.

        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Failed to save file!" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & ex.Message)

        Finally
            If (swrFile IsNot Nothing) Then
                swrFile.Close()
            End If

        End Try

    End Sub


    Private Sub cmdLoad_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdLoad.Click

        Dim srdFile As StreamReader = Nothing
        Try
            srdFile = New StreamReader(txtFile.Text)
            Dim straDelimiter() As String = {"\wwSection"}
            Dim straRTF() As String = srdFile.ReadToEnd().Split(straDelimiter, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
            For Each strRTF As String In straRTF
                If (strRTF.StartsWith(" About: \par ")) Then
                    rtbAbout.Rtf = strRTF.Substring(13)
                ElseIf (strRTF.StartsWith(" Installation: \par ")) Then
                    rtbInstallation.Rtf = strRTF.Substring(20)
                ElseIf (strRTF.StartsWith(" Developer: \par ")) Then
                    rtbDeveloper.Rtf = strRTF.Substring(17)
                End If
            Next strRTF

        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Failed to load file!" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & ex.Message)

        Finally
            If (srdFile IsNot Nothing) Then
                srdFile.Close()
            End If

        End Try

    End Sub

End Class

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RTF-Example.jpg

Thanks, SouthMod.

Hi, coperations07,

I suggest that you mark wizzie83's first post (ID: 32991594) as the answer as it shows the basis of the solution.  You might mark my post ( ID: 33009169) as an assisted solution.  You could allocate all the points to wizzie83 (as I'm not here for the points anyway).

Cheers,
Randy
 

Thanks for the help guys. I'll probably post a follow up question later because I haven't gotten this to work like I need it to yet. I'll wait until I have more time to work on it though.