is there a good alternative to richtextbox in wpf?

Question

Hey all

Blend seems to crash when I try to edit the template of a RichTextBox (even blend 3.)

I need an alternative that can display bold, highlighted, italic text of different colors etc.

Is there anything like this?

Answer 1

RichTextBox is for editing formatted text. If you're just trying to display text, you can just use a TextBlock:

<TextBlock>
    <TextBlock FontWeight="Bold">I am bold</TextBlock>
    <TextBlock> and I am not</TextBlock>
</TextBlock>

And if your document is complex enough, you can stick it inside a DocumentViewer.

That said, have you tried taking the simplest possible RichTextBox and editing the template in Blend? Does that still crash?

HTH, Kent

Answer 2

It may not be "pure" but you can use the old Windows.Forms RichTextBox inside your WPF window if you prefer it. I've done it and it works pretty well.