About Rich Edit Controls

The following topics are discussed in this section.

Versions of Rich Edit
Unsupported Edit Control Functionality
Rich Edit Shortcut Keys
Related Topics

Versions of Rich Edit

The original specification for rich edit controls is Microsoft Rich Edit 1.0; the current specification is Rich Edit 4.1. Each version of rich edit is a superset of the preceding one, except that only Asian builds of Rich Edit 1.0 have a vertical text option. Before creating a rich edit control, you should call the LoadLibrary function to verify which version of Rich Edit is installed.

The following table shows which DLL corresponds with which version of Rich Edit. Note that the name of the file did not change from version 2.0 to version 3.0. This allows version 2.0 to be upgraded to version 3.0 without breaking existing code.

Rich Edit version	DLL	Window Class
1.0	Riched32.dll	RICHEDIT_CLASS
2.0	Riched20.dll	RICHEDIT_CLASS
3.0	Riched20.dll	RICHEDIT_CLASS
4.1	Msftedit.dll	MSFTEDIT_CLASS

The following list describes which versions of Rich Edit are included in which releases of Microsoft Windows.

Windows XP SP1	Includes Rich Edit 4.1, Rich Edit 3.0, and a Rich Edit 1.0 emulator.
Windows XP	Includes Rich Edit 3.0 with a Rich Edit 1.0 emulator.
Windows Me	Includes Rich Edit 1.0 and 3.0.
Windows 2000	Includes Rich Edit 3.0 with a Rich Edit 1.0 emulator.
Windows NT 4.0	Includes Rich Edit 1.0 and 2.0.
Windows 98	Includes Rich Edit 1.0 and 2.0.
Windows 95	Includes only Rich Edit 1.0. However, Riched20.dll is compatible with Windows 95 and may be installed by an application that requires it.

On Windows 95/98/Me, Rich Edit 1.0 is localized so that it works with a particular operating system that is similarly localized. For example, on Japanese versions of an operating system, Rich Edit 1.0 can display Japanese, but not Arabic.

The following topics describe the new features introduced in each version of Rich Edit.

Rich Edit Version 1.0
Rich Edit Version 2.0
Rich Edit Version 3.0
Rich Edit Version 4.1

Rich Edit Version 1.0

Rich Edit 1.0 includes the following features.

Text entry and selection	Mostly standard (system-edit control) selection and entry of text. Selection bar support (the selection bar is an unmarked area to the left of each paragraph that when clicked, selects the line). Word-wrap and auto-word-select options. Single-, double-, and triple-click selection.
ANSI (single-byte character set (SBCS) and multibyte character set (MBCS)) editing	However, there is no Unicode editing.
Basic set of character/paragraph formatting properties	See CHARFORMAT and PARAFORMAT.
Character formatting properties	Font name and size, bold, italic, solid underline, strike-out, protected, link, offset, and text color.
Paragraph formatting properties	Start indent, right indent, subsequent line offset, bullet, alignment (left, center, right), and tabs.
Find forward	Includes case-insensitive and match-whole-word options.
Message-based interface	Almost a superset of the system edit-control message set plus two interfaces, IRichEditOle and IRichEditCallback.
Embedded objects	Requires client collaboration based on IRichEditOle and IRichEditCallback interfaces.
Right-button menu support	Uses IRichEditCallback interface.
Drag-and-drop editing	Drag-and-drop editing is supported.
Notifications	WM_COMMAND messages sent to client plus a number of others. This is a superset of common-control notifications.
Single-level undo/redo	Behaves similarly to the system edit control. Selecting Undo reverses the last action, and that action then becomes the new Redo action.
Simple vertical text	(Asian builds only).
Input Method Editor (IME) support	(Asian builds only).
WYSIWYG editing using printer metrics	This feature is needed for Microsoft WordPad, in particular.
Cut/Copy/Paste/StreamIn/StreamOut	With plain text (CF_TEXT) or Rich Text Format (RTF) with and without objects.
C code base	The code is written in C, which provides a solid and versatile foundation.
Different builds for different scripts	Rich Edit 1.0 addresses localization issues with different builds.

Rich Edit Version 2.0

Rich Edit 2.0 incorporated several additional features, such as support for Unicode and Asian languages, multilevel Undo, Component Object Model (COM) interfaces, and numerous user interface (UI) enhancements.

Rich Edit 2.0 includes the following features in addition to the features provided by .

Unicode	Unicode eases the effort in handling international text. However effort is needed to maintain compatibility with existing non-Unicode documents—that is, the ability to convert to/from non-Unicode plain and rich text. Also, substantial effort is needed to run correctly on Windows 95/98/Me.
General international support	General line breaking algorithm (extension of Kinsoku rules), simple font linking, keyboard font switching.
Asian support	Level 2 (dialog box) and 3 (inline) is supported in IMEs.
Find Up/Find Down support	Searching forward and backward is supported.
Bidirectional support	This is included in Rich Edit 2.1
Multilevel undo	An extensible Undo architecture allows client to participate in application-wide Undo model.
Magellan mouse support	This is the mouse with a roller for scrolling.
Dual-font support	The keyboard can automatically switch fonts when the active font is inappropriate for current keyboard, for example, Kanji characters in Times New Roman.
Smart font apply	Font change request does not apply Western fonts to Asian characters.
Improved display	An off-screen bitmap is used when multiple fonts occur on the same line. This allows, for example, the last letter of the word cool not to be chopped off.
Transparency support	Also in windowless mode.
System selection colors	Used for selecting text.
Automatic URL recognition	Can check for a number of URL formats (for example, http:)
Microsoft Word edit UI compatibility	Selection, cursor-keypad semantics.
Word standard EOP	The end-of-paragraph mark (CR) can also handle carriage return/line feed (CR/LF) (carriage return, line-feed).
Plain-text as well as rich-text functionality	Single-character format and single-paragraph format.
Single-line and multiline controls	Truncate at first end-of-paragraph and no wordwrap.
Accelerator keys	Accelerator keys are supported.
Password window style	Password edit controls are supplied through EM_GETPASSWORDCHAR and EM_SETPASSWORDCHAR.
Scalable architecture	To reduce instance size.
Windowless operation and interfaces	This is provided through the ITextHost and ITextServices interfaces.
COM dual interfaces	Text Object Model (TOM) interfaces.
CHARFORMAT2	Added font weight, background color, locale identifier, underline type, superscript and subscript (in addition to offset), disabled effect. For RTF roundtripping only, added amount to space between letters, twip size above which to kern character pair, animated-text type, various effects: font shadow/outline, all caps, small caps, hidden, embossed, imprint, and revised.
PARAFORMAT2	Added space before and after and Word line spacing. For RTF roundtripping only, added shading weight/style, numbering start/style/tab, border space/width/sides, tab alignment/leaders, various Word paragraph effects: RTL paragraph, keep, keep-next, page-break-before, no-line-number, no-widow-control, do-not-hyphenate, side-by-side.
More RTF roundtripping	All of the Word FormatFont and FormatParagraph properties.
Code stability and stabilization	Examples: parameter and object validation, function invariants, reentrancy guards, object stabilization.
Strong testing infrastructure	Including extensive regressions tests.
Improved performance	Smaller working set, faster load and redisplay times, and so on.
C++ code base	The code is written in C++, which provides a solid foundation on which to build Rich Edit 3.0.

With a few exceptions, Rich Edit 2.0 uses the same functions, structures, and messages as Rich Edit 1.0. Note, however, the following differences:

The name of the Rich Edit 1.0 window class is RichEdit. Rich Edit 2.0 has both ANSI and Unicode window classes—RichEdit20A and RichEdit20W, respectively. To specify the appropriate rich edit window class, use the RICHEDIT_CLASS constant, which the Richedit.h file defines depending on the definition of the UNICODE compile flag.
In Rich Edit 2.0, if you create a Unicode rich edit control (one that expects Unicode text messages), you must specify only Unicode data in any window messages sent to the control. Similarly, if you create an ANSI rich edit control, send only ANSI or double-byte character set (DBCS) data. You can use the IsWindowUnicode function to determine whether a rich edit control uses Unicode text messages. Note that the rich edit COM interfaces use Unicode text unless they encounter a code page argument.
Rich Edit 1.0 used CR/LF character combinations for paragraph markers. Rich Edit 2.0 used only a carriage return character ('\r'). Rich Edit 3.0 uses only a carriage return character but can emulate Rich Edit 1.0 in this regard.

Rich Edit 2.0 introduced the following new messages.

Message	Description
EM_AUTOURLDETECT	Enables or disables automatic URL detection.
EM_CANREDO	Determines whether there are any actions in the redo queue.
EM_GETIMECOMPMODE	Retrieves the current input method editor (IME) mode.
EM_GETLANGOPTIONS	Retrieves options for IME and Asian language support.
EM_GETREDONAME	Retrieves the type name of the next action in the redo queue.
EM_GETTEXTMODE	Retrieves the text mode or undo level.
EM_GETUNDONAME	Retrieves the type name of the next action in the undo queue.
EM_REDO	Redoes the next action in the redo queue.
EM_SETLANGOPTIONS	Sets options for IME and Asian language support.
EM_SETTEXTMODE	Sets the text mode or undo level.
EM_SETUNDOLIMIT	Sets the maximum number of actions in the undo queue.
EM_STOPGROUPTYPING	Stops grouping consecutive typing actions into the current undo action.

Rich Edit 2.0 introduced the following new structures.
Structure Description
CHARFORMAT2 Contains information about character formatting.
PARAFORMAT2 Contains information about paragraph formatting.
Rich Edit versions 2.0 and 3.0 do not support the following messages that were previously supported in Asian-language versions of Rich Edit 1.0.
EM_CONVPOSITION
EM_GETIMECOLOR
EM_GETIMEOPTIONS
EM_GETPUNCTUATION
EM_GETWORDWRAPMODE
EM_SETIMECOLOR
EM_SETIMEOPTIONS
EM_SETPUNCTUATION
EM_SETWORDWRAPMODE

Structure	Description
CHARFORMAT2	Contains information about character formatting.
PARAFORMAT2	Contains information about paragraph formatting.

Rich Edit Version 3.0

Rich Edit 3.0 is a single, scalable, world-wide DLL that offers high performance and compatibility with Word in a small package. New features for Rich Edit 3.0 include richer text, zoom, font binding, more powerful IME support, and rich complex script support (bidirectional, Indic, and Thai).

Rich Edit 3.0 includes the following features in addition to the features provided by Rich Edit Version 2.0.

Zoom	The zoom factor is given by a ratio.
Paragraph numbering (single-level)	Numeric, upper and lower alphabetic, or Roman numeral.
Simple tables	Deleting and inserting rows is possible, but not resizing nor wrapping inside cells. With advanced typography turned on (see EM_GETTYPOGRAPHYOPTIONS), Rich Edit 3.0 can align columns centered or flush right, and include decimals. Cells are simulated by tabs, so text tabs and carriage returns are replaced by blanks.
Normal and heading styles	Built-in normal style and heading styles 1 through 9 are supported by the EM_SETPARAFORMAT and Text Object Model (TOM) interfaces.
More underline types	Dashed, dash-dot, dash-dot-dot, and dot underlining has been added.
Underline coloring	Underlined text can be tagged with one of 15 document choices for underline colors.
Hidden text	Marked by CHARFORMAT2 attribute. Handy for roundtripping (writing out to a file what was read in) of information that ordinarily should not be displayed.
More default hot keys	These hot keys function the same as those in Word. For example, European accent dead keys (U.S. keyboards only). Number hot key (CTRL+L) cycles through numbering options available, starting with bullet.
HexToUnicode IME	Allows a user to convert between hexadecimal and Unicode by using hot keys.
Smart quotes	This feature is toggled on and off by CTRL+ALT+' for U.S. keyboards.
Soft hyphens	For plain text, use 0xAD. For RTF, use \-.
Italics cursor	In addition, the mouse cursor changes to a hand when over URLs.
Advanced typography option	Rich Edit 3.0 can use an advanced typography option for line breaking and display (see EM_GETTYPOGRAPHYOPTIONS). This elegant option was added primarily to facilitate handling complex scripts (bidirectional, Indic, and Thai). In addition, a number of improvements occur for simple scripts. Examples are: Center, right, decimal tabs Fully justified text Underline averaging, which provides a uniform underline even when adjacent text runs have different font sizes.
Complex script support	Rich Edit 3.0 supports bidirectional (text with Arabic and/or Hebrew mixed with other scripts), Indic (Indian scripts like Devangari), and Thai text. For support of these complex scripts, the advanced typography and Uniscribe components are used.
Font binding	Rich Edit 3.0 will automatically choose an appropriate font for characters that clearly do not belong to the current character set stamp. This is done by assigning character sets to text runs and associating fonts with those character sets. For more information, see Font Binding.
Plain-text read/write options specific to character sets	This allows reading a file using one character set, and writing with a different character set.
UTF-8 RTF	This is recommended for cutting, copying, and pasting operations. This file format is more compact than ordinary RTF, faster, and compatible with Unicode.
Microsoft Office 9 IME support (IME98)	This more powerful IME capability has been separated into an independent module. Features include: Reconversion In the earlier versions, the user needed to delete the final string first and then type in a new string to get to the correct candidate. This new feature enables the user to convert the final string back to composition mode, thereby allowing easy selection of a different candidate string. Document feed This feature provides IME98 with the text for the current paragraph, which helps IME98 perform more accurate conversion during typing. Mouse operation This feature provides better control over the candidate and UI windows during typing. Caret position This feature provides the current caret and line information, which IME98 uses to position UI windows (for example, a candidate list).
Active Input Method Manager (IMM) support	Users can invoke the Active IMM object, which enables users to enter Asian characters on U.S. systems.
HexToUnicode support	Users can convert between hexadecimal notation and Unicode by using hot keys.
More RTF roundtripping	RTF text that is read in from a file will be written back out intact.
Improved 1.0 compatibility mode	Rich Edit 3.0 can emulate Rich Edit 1.0 behavior. For example, it is possible to change between MBCS and Unicode character-position (cp) mappings. This feature emulates Rich Edit 1.0 in Windows 2000.
Increased freeze control	The display can be frozen over multiple API calls and then unfrozen to display the updates.
Increased undo control	Undo can be suspended and resumed (an IME requirement).
Increase/decrease font size	Increases or decreases font size to one of six standard values (12, 28, 36, 48, 72, and 80 points).

Rich Edit Version 4.1

The window class for Rich Edit 4.1 is MSFTEDIT_CLASS.

New features for Rich Edit 4.1 include hyphenation, page rotation, and Text Services Framework (TSF) support.

Rich Edit 4.1 includes the following features in addition to the features provided by Rich Edit Version 3.0.

Hyphenation	Hyphenation is supported through the following APIs: HyphenateProc, EM_SETHYPHENATEINFO, and EM_GETHYPHENATEINFO.
Page rotation	Top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top layout is supported through EM_SETPAGEROTATE and EM_GETPAGEROTATE.
Text Services Framework support	To turn on TSF and certain TSF features, use the following styles in EM_SETEDITSTYLE: SES_USECTF, SES_CTFALLOWEMBED, SES_CTFALLOWPROOFING, and SES_CTFALLOWSMARTTAG. To set and get the TSF mode bias, use EM_SETCTFMODEBIAS and EM_GETCTFMODEBIAS. To set and get the TSF keyboard status, use EM_SETCTFOPENSTATUS and EM_GETCTFOPENSTATUS.
Additional IME support	To set and get the IME mode bias, use EM_SETIMEMODEBIAS and EM_GETIMEMODEBIAS. To get the properties and capabilities of the IME, use EM_GETIMEPROPERTY. To get the IME composition text, use EM_GETIMECOMPTEXT. To determine whether the locale is an East Asian locale, use EM_ISIME.
Additional EM_SETEDITSTYLE settings	Besides the TSF settings, there are new settings that exclude IMEs, set bidirectional text flow, use draftmode fonts, and more.
Additional EM_SETCHARFORMAT settings	New flags allow the client to set the default font and font sizes for a given LCID or character set, to set the default font for the control, to prevent keyboard switching to match the font, and more.
Restricting input to ANSI text	Using TM_SINGLECODEPAGE in EM_SETTEXTMODE prevents Unicode input from entering a Rich Edit control.
Unsupported RTF keyword notification	EN_LOWFIRTF warns an application when there is an unsupported RTF keyword.
Additional language support	Additional languages include Armenian, Divehi, Telugu, and others.
Improved table support	Features include: wrapping within cells, improved handling via RTF, and improved navigation.
ES_VERTICAL	The ES_VERTICAL windows style is supported.
WM_UNICHAR support	To send or post Unicode characters to ANSI windows, use WM_UNICHAR. It is equivalent to WM_CHAR, but it uses (UTF)-32.

Unsupported Edit Control Functionality

Rich edit controls support most but not all functionality for multiline edit controls. This section lists the edit control messages and window styles that are not supported by rich edit controls.

The following messages are processed by edit controls but not by rich edit controls.

Unsupported message	Comments
EM_FMTLINES	Not supported.
EM_GETHANDLE	Rich edit controls do not store text as a simple array of characters.
EM_GETIMESTATUS	Not supported.
EM_GETMARGINS	Not supported.
EM_SETHANDLE	Rich edit controls do not store text as a simple array of characters.
EM_SETIMESTATUS	Not supported.
EM_SETMARGINS	Supported in Rich Edit 3.0.
EM_SETRECTNP	Not supported.
EM_SETTABSTOPS	The EM_SETPARAFORMAT message is used instead. Supported in Rich Edit 3.0.
WM_CTLCOLOR	The EM_SETBKGNDCOLOR message is used instead.
WM_GETFONT	The EM_GETCHARFORMAT message is used instead.

The following window styles are used with multiline edit controls but not with rich edit controls: ES_LOWERCASE, ES_UPPERCASE, and ES_OEMCONVERT.

Rich Edit Shortcut Keys

Rich edit controls support the following shortcut keys.

Keys	Operations	Comments
Shift+Backspace	Generate a LRM/LRM on a bidi keyboard	BiDi specific
Ctrl+Tab	Tab
Ctrl+Clear	Select all
Ctrl+Number Pad 5	Select all
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+E	Center alignment
Ctrl+J	Justify alignment
Ctrl+R	Right alignment
Ctrl+L	Left alignment
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+'+' (Ctrl+Shift+'=')	Superscript
Ctrl+'='	Subscript
Ctrl+1	Line spacing = 1 line.
Ctrl+2	Line spacing = 2 lines.
Ctrl+5	Line spacing = 1.5 lines.
Ctrl+' (apostrophe)	Accent acute	After pressing the short cut key, press the appropriate letter (for example a, e, or u). This applies to English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish keyboards only.
Ctrl+` (grave)	Accent grave	See Ctrl+' comments.
Ctrl+~ (tilde)	Accent tilde	See Ctrl+' comments.
Ctrl+; (semicolon)	Accent umlaut	See Ctrl+' comments.
Ctrl+Shift+6	Accent caret (circumflex)	See Ctrl+' comments.
Ctrl+, (comma)	Accent cedilla	See Ctrl+' comments.
Ctrl+Shift+' (apostrophe)	Activate smart quotes
Backspace	If text is protected, beep and do not delete it. Otherwise, delete previous character.
Ctrl+Backspace	Delete previous word. This generates a VK_F16 code.
F16	Same as Backspace.
Ctrl+Insert	Copy
Shift+Insert	Paste
Insert	Overwrite	DBCS does not overwrite.
Ctrl+Left Arrow	Move cursor one word to the left.	On bidi keyboard, this depends on the direction of the text.
Ctrl+Right Arrow	Move cursor one word to the right.	See Ctrl+Left Arrow comments.
Ctrl+Left Shift	Left alignment	In BiDi documents, this is for left-to-right reading order.
Ctrl+Right Shift	Right alignment	In BiDi documents, this is for right-to-left reading order.
Ctrl+Up Arrow	Move to the line above.
Ctrl+Down Arrow	Move to the line below.
Ctrl+Home	Move to the beginning of the document.
Ctrl+End	Move to the end of the document.
Ctrl+Page Up	Move one page up.	If in SystemEditMode and Single Line control, do nothing.
Ctrl+Page Down	Move one page down.	See Ctrl+Page Up comments.
Ctrl+Delete	Delete the next word or selected characters.
Shift+Delete	Cut the selected characters.


Esc	Stop drag-drop.	While doing a drag-drop of text.
Alt+Esc	Change the active application.
Alt+X	Converts the Unicode hexadecimal value preceding the insertion point to the corresponding Unicode character.
Alt+Shift+X	Converts the Unicode character preceding the insertion point to the corresponding Unicode hexadecimal value.
Alt+0xxx (Number Pad)	Inserts Unicode values if xxx is greater than 255. When xxx is less than 256, ASCI range text is inserted based on the current keyboard.	Must enter decimal values.


Alt+Shift+Ctrl+F12	Hex to Unicode.	In case Alt+X is already taken for another use.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+F11	Selected text will be output to the debugger window and saved to %temp%\DumpFontInfo.txt.	For Debug only (need to set Flag=8 in Win.ini)
Ctrl+Shift+A	Set all caps.
Ctrl+Shift+L	Fiddle bullet style.
Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow	Increase font size.	Font size changes by 1 point in the range 4pt-11pt; by 2points for 12pt-28pt; it changes from 28pt -> 36pt -> 48pt -> 72pt -> 80pt; it changes by 10 points in the range 80pt - 1630pt; the maximum value is 1638.
Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow	Decrease font size.	See Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow comments.