add menu item to default context menu

Question

I'd like to add a menu item to the default ContextMenu of a RichTextBox. I can create a new context menu but then I loose the spell check suggestions that show up in the default menu. Is there a way to add an item without re-implementing everything?

Answer 1

It's not too tricky to reimplement the RichTextBox context menu with spelling suggestions, Cut, Paste, etc.

Hook up the context menu opening event as follows:

AddHandler(RichTextBox.ContextMenuOpeningEvent, new ContextMenuEventHandler(RichTextBox_ContextMenuOpening), true);

Within the event handler build the context menu as you need. You can recreate the existing context menu menu items with the following:

private IList<MenuItem> GetSpellingSuggestions()
{
    List<MenuItem> spellingSuggestions = new List();
    SpellingError spellingError = myRichTextBox.GetSpellingError(myRichTextBox.CaretPosition);
    if (spellingError != null)
    {
     foreach (string str in spellingError.Suggestions)
     {
      MenuItem mi = new MenuItem();
      mi.Header = str;
      mi.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold;
      mi.Command = EditingCommands.CorrectSpellingError;
      mi.CommandParameter = str;
      mi.CommandTarget = myRichTextBox;
      spellingSuggestions.Add(mi);
     }
    }
    return spellingSuggestions;
}

private IList<MenuItem> GetStandardCommands()
{
    List<MenuItem> standardCommands = new List();

    MenuItem item = new MenuItem();
    item.Command = ApplicationCommands.Cut;
    standardCommands.Add(item);

    item = new MenuItem();
    item.Command = ApplicationCommands.Copy;
    standardCommands.Add(item);

    item = new MenuItem();
    item.Command = ApplicationCommands.Paste;
    standardCommands.Add(item);

    return standardCommands;
}

If there are spelling errors, you can create Ignore All with:

MenuItem ignoreAllMI = new MenuItem();
ignoreAllMI.Header = "Ignore All";
ignoreAllMI.Command = EditingCommands.IgnoreSpellingError;
ignoreAllMI.CommandTarget = textBox;
newContextMenu.Items.Add(ignoreAllMI);

Add separators as required. Add those to the new context menu's items, and then add your shiny new MenuItems.

I'm going to keep looking for a way to obtain the actual context menu though, as this is relevant to something I'll be working on in the near future.