EdAlign.exe Changes Text Alignment in Edit Control

ID: Q66942

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK)
Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1
Microsoft Windows 2000

SUMMARY

This article explains that the EdAlign.exe. is available for download.

MORE INFORMATION

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. Click the file name below to download the file:

EdAlign.exe

For more information about how to download files from the Microsoft Download Center, please visit the Download Center at the following Web address

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp

and then click How to use the Microsoft Download Center.

Only multiline edit controls can be right-aligned or centered. Single-line edit controls are always left-aligned, regardless of the control style given.

Windows does not support altering the alignment style of a multiline edit control after it has been created. However, there are two methods that you can use to cause a multiline edit control in a dialog box to appear to change alignment. Note that in each of these methods, the dialog box that contains the control must be created with the DS_LOCALEDIT style.

The first method applies to all platforms. The second method does not apply to Windows 95 and Windows 98. Under Windows 95 and 98, EM_SETHANDlE and EM_GETHANDLE are not supported. For more information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q130759 : EM_SETHANDLE and EM_GETHANDLE Messages Not Supported

Method 1

Create three controls: one left-aligned, one centered, and one right- aligned. Each has the same dimensions and position in the dialog box, but only one is initially made visible.

When the alignment is to change, call ShowWindow() to hide the visible control and to make one of the other controls visible.

To keep the text identical in all three controls, use the EM_GETHANDLE and EM_SETHANDLE messages to share the same memory among all three controls.

Method 2

Initially create a single control. When the text alignment is to change, retrieve location, size, and style bits for the existing edit control. Create a new control with the same size and in the same location, but change the style bits to reflect the new alignment.

Send the EM_GETHANDLE to each control to retrieve a handle to the memory that stores the contents. Send an EM_SETHANDLE to each control to exchange the memory used by each. Finally, destroy the original control.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbfile kbsample kbCtrl kbEditCtrl kbNTOS kbNTOS350 kbNTOS351 kbWinOS2000 kbSDKWin32 kbGrpUser kbWinOS kbWinOS95
Version : WINDOWS:3.1
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo