[WinForms] RichTextBox ToolTip like Visual-Studio's

• Download source code - 28.2 KB
• Download demo - 35.9 KB

Introduction    

This is my first post on the CodeProject.

The main idea that pushed me to write this article is that I thought it might be useful to you as it was for me! First of all I searched on the net for something like this component, but unfortunately I didn't find anything like a readymade control or component to use in a project of mine when I was in need for it. So, I decided to stop relying on others work :p and started to make my own. The component works as the following figure shows: 

The component  dependencies

The component inherits from the standard ToolTip and relies on the following .NET methods of the RichTextBox control:  

• GetCharIndexFromPosition(Point)
• GetLineFromCharIndex(int)

The component is style-able: 

• You can specify your own color for the text of both; ToolTip title / ToolTip description text. 
• You can specify your own font for the text for each of both; ToolTip title / ToolTip description text.
• You can set your own background bitmap.

How to use the component

Here's a step-by-step:

1. On your project add a reference to the class library file "RTB_ToolTip.dll".
2. On the VS designer add a new RichTextBox control and let's name it "richTextBox1"
3. On the VS editor add the following using-directive: 

using RTB_ToolTip;

4. After the 'InitializeComponent' or on the 'Load' event (or wherever you want) do the following:

// Initialize a new RichTextBoxToolTip component
RichTextBoxToolTip rtb = new RichTextBoxToolTip();

// Set the desired RichTextBox control to use the ToolTip with
rtb.RichTextBox = richTextBox1;

// Initialize a new dictionary to fill in the desired information data
eDictionary dict = new eDictionary();
dict.Add("Title", "Description of the ToolTip here");
dict.Add("abc", "Alphabets :)");
dict.Add("123", "Numbers ;)");

// Assigne the dictionary to the RichTextBoxToolTip
rtb.Dictionary = dict;

5. Now push F5 button or click on Debug button to see your new RichTextBox behavior.

When the window is shown, type on the richTextBox1 control something like this "Title" / "abc" / "123" (quotes are not necessary). Now put the mouse over a word you typed and the ToolTip will show up automatically like this:

Additional info  

• If you want to change ToolTip Title/Description color, do the following:

rtb.TitleBrush = Brushes.Blue;  

Or:

rtb.DescriptionBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);

• You can also set your own pre and after text of the ToolTip title. For example: 

rtb.TitlePrefix = "Definition for '";
rtb.TitleSuffix = "':";

The result would look like this:



You can access the other properties (TitleFont / DescriptionFont / BackgroundImage...) by the same way.

• For customizing the way the 'SyntaxCheking' class determines words' start and end boundaries you can reset that in the RichTextBoxToolTip.Chars property. Example: 

rtb.Chars = new List<Char>() {' ', '(', ')', '?'};

How does it work?  

Sorry if the source code looks a little bit complicated to understand, I'll try to tell you how it works. See the following figure please: