RichViewActions 4.0 (screenshots!)

[Sergey Tkachenko]

RichViewActions 4.0 are released.

Related versions:
TRichView 14.0
ScaleRichView 5.0

Trial versions are available here:
http://www.trichview.com/download/

Main new features
(since RichViewActions 3.4.6)

Embarcadero RAD Studio XE3

Delphi and C++Builder XE3 are supported (32-bit and 64-bit VCL)

Style templates: real text and paragraph styles

RichViewActions provide a complete user interface for supporting styles. This support is activated by the target editor: if its UseStyleTemplates=True, the actions work with styles.

These new features will be explained in the next post.

TRVAControlPanel is rewritten

In the old versions of RichViewActions, TRVAControlPanel component provided access to global variables. It did not make sense to use two or more control panels in a project: they change the same variables.

In the new versions, global variables are not used, each control panel defines its own settings. If you use only a single control panel, it becomes a default control panel, so an application works exactly like in the previous version: all actions and components are linked to this control panel implicitly. However, you can link actions and components to the specific control panel, and they will work independently.

Font combo boxes

RichViewActions include 3 combo boxes for changing font properties: TRVFontComboBox (changing font name), TRVFontSizeComboBox, TRVFontCharsetComboBox. Previously, you need to use events to update them according to the selection in TRichViewEdit, and events to apply user choices.

In the new version, you can link them to an editor (and to TrvActionFontEx) in the Object Inspector (or in a code), and they will work automatically: no programming code is required.

The components can be linked either to TRichViewEdit/TDBRichViewEdit, or to TSRichViewEdit/TDBSRichViewEdit (ScaleRichView)

New translations

In addition to the previous translations, the user interface is translated to:

• Catalan
• Portuguese (European)
• Hindi
• Thai

Hindi is available in two cases: you use Delphi 2009 or newer; or you use TNT Controls (TMS Unicode Components).

New localized strings are available to display messages while performing long operations (loading and saving, downloading, printing)


The complete list of changes since RichViewActions 3.0: http://www.trichview.com/help-actions/history.htm


Previous version: http://www.trichview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5047

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Styles in RichViewActions 4.0

Part 1: New actions

RichViewActions include 5 new actions.

TrvActionStyleTemplates display a dialog window to manage styles.
In this dialog, you can:

• change properties of styles
• delete styles(the only undeletable style is "Normal")
• add a custom style
• add a standard style
• import styles from RVF, RTF or RVST file
• export styles to RVST file

Style management dialog

Standard styles have the following differences from custom styles:

• they have predefined (localizable) names and cannot be renamed
• they have predefined (customizable) initial properties
• while you can edit their properties, some properties are protected (for example, 'heading N' must have the document outline level N)
• some standard styles are used by RichViewActions specially.

Style import dialog

When importing styles, you can choose to import only a subset of styles from the specified file. The dialog window helps you to choose only new or only existing styles. When you export existing styles (i.e. having the same names), you can choose to override properties of existing styles, or add new styles renamed.
A special format for storing TRichView styles is implemented (RVST files).
(This format is used not only in this dialog. You can load and save RVST files in TRVStyle at design time; The demo Demos\Editors\StyleTemplates loads an RVST file to apply styles to new documents)

TrvActionAddStyleTemplate displays the same dialog with a new custom style added. Properties of this style are based on the text and paragraph attributes at the current document position, so you can quickly convert formatting to a style.

TrvActionClearFormat resets all formatting in the selected fragment to defaults. If "Normal" style exists, it is applied to the selected paragraphs, all other paragraph properties are reset. All styles and non-standard properties are cleared from text. If "Hyperlink" style exists, it is applied to hyperlinks.

TrvActionClearTextFormat does the same work, but only for text.

TrvActionStyleInspector displays a window showing formatting properties in the current document position.

Style inspector
This action can be used event when style templates are not used.

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Styles in RichViewActions 4.0

Part 2: New components

RichViewActions include 2 new components: TRVStyleTemplateComboBox and TRVStyleTemplateListBox.



The features of these components are almost identical.
When linked to an editor (TRichViewEdit or ScaleRichView), they work automatically, no programming code is required.

The components display a list of styles and allow applying the chosen style to the selection. Optionally, they can have "Clear Format" item.

By default, the components do not display all available styles. They display:

• styles marked by users as important ("quick-access" styles)
• styles used in the document
• heading styles are processed specially

If not all styles are included, the components include "All styles" item. You can process an event to display a dialog when this item is clicked. If this event is not processed, a combo box can display all styles temporarily.

[Sergey Tkachenko]

Styles in RichViewActions 4.0. Part 3

Changes in other actions

TrvActionPasteSpecial offers options for pasting RVF and RTF


TrvActionInsertHyperlink applies the specified style to hyperlinks ("Hyperlink" by default)

TrvActionNew applies the specified initial set of styles to new documents. Paragraph are formatted using "Normal" style (if exists).

Changes in demos

ReadMe.rvf (the file loaded in the ActionTest demos) is reformatted using styles. A set of style files (RVST) is available in "Styles" folder. You can apply them and see how this document is changed.

To apply a style, open the style dialog, click "Import", select an RVST file, click OK in the style import dialog, then OK in the style dialog.
Screenshots of results can be found here:
http://www.trichview.com/features/styles.html