Displaying Multi-Line Text

by - StPendl Apr 19, 2010

• Every now and then one needs to display text of multiple lines, which the user should not be able to change.
• Using one STATICTEXT control for each line is cumbersome, but the STATICTEXT control is a multi-line control with automatic text wrapping, which most are not aware of.

• The following are some ways to display text.

Using a Static Text Control

• This allows the user to read the text, but he can not select and copy anything.

 ' turn main window off 
 nomainwin 
 
 ' specify text to display 
 Message$ = "The world is turning"; CHR$(13); _ 
 "till it gets stuck"; CHR$(13); _ 
 "in the mud of the population." 
 
 ' set up the GUI 
 statictext #m.txt, Message$, 10, 10, 200, 100 
 
 ' open the window 
 open "Multi-Line Message Demo" for window as #m 
 
 ' trap closing the window, this line is mandatory 
 #m "trapclose [quit]" 
 
 ' wait for user action 
 wait 
 
 [quit] 
 ' close the window and terminate 
 close #m 
 end 

Using a Text Box with Scroll-Bar

• This allows the user to read the text and he can select and copy anything.
• You can display a whole plain text file in a small space.

 ' turn main window off 
 nomainwin 
 
 ' specify text to display 
 filedialog "Open a Plain Text File ...", "*.txt;*.bas", FileName$ 
 
 ' no file selected then terminate 
 if FileName$ = "" then end 
 
 ' read the text 
 open FileName$ for input as #f 
 Message$ = input$(#f, lof(#f)) 
 close #f 
 
 ' set up the GUI 
 textbox #m.txt, 10, 10, 200, 100 
 
 ' add a scroll bar for vertical scrolling and make it the control read-only 
 ' remove automatic horizontal scrolling 
 stylebits #m.txt, _WS_VSCROLL or _ES_READONLY, _ES_AUTOHSCROLL, 0, 0 
 
 ' open the window 
 open "Multi-Line Message Demo" for window as #m 
 
 ' trap closing the window, this line is mandatory 
 #m "trapclose [quit]" 
 
 ' fill the text box 
 #m.txt Message$ 
 
 ' wait for user action 
 wait 
 
 [quit] 
 ' close the window and terminate 
 close #m 
 end