This document covers the following topics:
In an edit area control, the end user may type in free-form text. It may contain any number of lines, and scroll bars may be set: if there are more lines in the edit area control than can be displayed, the end user may scroll to the desired line.
To use the free form text elsewhere in your application, you will have to set the text of the edit area control into alphanumeric Natural fields line by line. You can then query these lines of text one after the other.
You can manipulate the text in the edit area control by using PROCESS GUI statement actions. This helps you insert a new line, query a certain line, set a selection, query the selected text, and so on. Note that when transferring to and from an edit area control, the STRING attribute will only be able to hold 253 characters. If you want to move text longer than 253 characters, you can use the PROCESS GUI statement actions named EDIT-*. Alternatively, to get and set large quantities of text in a single operation, the GET-TEXT and SET-TEXT actions can be used, respectively.
| Attribute Name | Query | Set/Modify | In Attr. Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| BACKGROUND-COLOUR-NAME | X | X/X | X |
| BACKGROUND-COLOUR-VALUE | X | X/X | X |
| CLIENT-DATA | X | X/X | |
| CLIENT-HANDLE | X | X/X | |
| CLIENT-KEY | X | X/X | |
| CLIENT-VALUE | X | X/X | |
| CONTEXT-MENU | X | X/X | X |
| DIL-TEXT | X | X/X | X |
| DROP-MODE | X | X/X | X |
| ENABLED | X | X/X | X |
| FIRST-CHILD | X | -/- | |
| FOLLOWS | X | X/X | |
| FONT-HANDLE | X | X/X | X |
| FOREGROUND-COLOUR-NAME | X | X/X | X |
| FOREGROUND-COLOUR-VALUE | X | X/X | X |
| HELP-ID | X | X/X | X |
| HORIZ-SCROLLABLE | X | X/- | X |
| LAST-CHILD | X | -/- | |
| LENGTH | X | X/X | |
| MODIFIABLE | X | X/X | X |
| MODIFIED | X | -/X | |
| MODIFIED-SUCCESSOR | X | -/- | |
| OWNER | X | X/- | |
| PARENT | X | X/- | |
| PREDECESSOR | X | -/- | |
| RECTANGLE-H | X | X/X | X |
| RECTANGLE-W | X | X/X | X |
| RECTANGLE-X | X | X/X | X |
| RECTANGLE-Y | X | X/X | X |
| RTL | X | -/- | X |
| STRING | X | X/X | X |
| STYLE | X | X/- | X |
| SUCCESSOR | X | -/- | |
| SUPPRESS-CHANGE-EVENT | X | -/- | |
| SUPPRESS-DRAG-DROP-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| SUPPRESS-DRAG-ENTER-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| SUPPRESS-DRAG-LEAVE-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| SUPPRESS-DRAG-OVER-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| SUPPRESS-ENTER-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| SUPPRESS-LEAVE-EVENT | X | X/X | |
| TOOLTIP | X | X/X | |
| TYPE | X | X/- | X |
| VERT-SCROLLABLE | X | X/- | X |
| VISIBLE | X | X/X | X |
Change Event, Drag-Drop Event, Drag-Enter Event, Drag-Leave Event, Drag-Over Event, Enter Event, Leave Event (all events may be suppressed).