Visual C++ and MFC Programming 2nd Edition

Chapter 16: Text-Based Controls Visual C++ and MFC Fundamentals

7. Add a Control variable (of type CRichEditCtrl) to the rich edit control and name it
   m_Richer

16.3.3..Rich Edit Properties............................................................................

At first glance, a rich edit appears like a regular edit control. Its ability to format text and

paragraph sets them apart. To change the appearance of a letter, a word or a paragraph,

you can change its size, height, or weight. This can be done by calling the

CRichEditCtrl::SetSelectionCharFormat() method. Its syntax is:

BOOL SetSelectionCharFormat(CHARFORMAT& cf);

This simply means that the rich edit control relies on the Win32 API's CHARFORMAT

structure to format text. This structure is defined as follows:

typedef struct _charformat {

UINT cbSize;

DWORD dwMask;

DWORD dwEffects;

LONG yHeight;

LONG yOffset;

COLORREF crTextColor;

BYTE bCharSet;

BYTE bPitchAndFamily;

TCHAR szFaceName[LF_FACESIZE];

} CHARFORMAT;

To format the characters, declare a variable of this structure and take its size. Then

initialize the necessary member variables, ignoring those you do not need. To start,

initialize dwMask with the type of formatting you want to apply or the type of operation

you want to perform. The possible values are:

Value Used to

CFM_BOLD Make the character(s) bold

CFM_ITALIC Italicize the character(s)

CFM_UNDERLINE Underline the character(s)

CFM_STRIKEOUT Strike out the character(s)

CFM_SIZE Change the size the character(s)

CFM_CHARSET Access character set

CFM_COLOR Change the color of the text

CFM_FACE Set the font name

CFM_OFFSET Offset the character(s)

CFM_PROTECTED Protect the character(s)

You can apply the actual text formatting using the dwEffects member variable. Its

possible values are: CFE_AUTOCOLOR, CFE_BOLD, CFE_ITALIC,

CFE_STRIKEOUT, CFE_UNDERLINE, and CFE_PROTECTED. These effects can

be combined as needed using the bitwise OR operator. For example, you can combine

CFE_BOLD and CFE_ITALIC as CFE_BOLD | CFE_ITALIC to have text that is

both in bold and italic.

The yHeight variable is used to set the new height of the text.

The yOffset variable is used to create a superscript or subscript effect.