Create an "Edit" control

1. On the "Creation" tab, in the "Usual controls" group, click .
2. Click where the control will be created in the window or page. The control appears in the editor.

Type of an Edit control

• Text to display or enter a character string (name, address, etc.).
• Multiline text to display or enter several lines separated by a "Carriage Return".
• RTF text to enter and display information in RTF.
• New in version 28
  Markdown read-onlyto display Markdown text.
• Password: when typing information, all characters will be replaced with asterisks on the screen.
• Numeric to display or enter a numeric value (weight, etc.). The "+++" characters are displayed if the control is not large enough to display the entire number.
• Currency to display or enter monetary values.
• Currency + Euro to manage prices for example
• Date to display or enter dates.
• Time to enter or display times.
• Duration to enter or display durations.
• Text tokens to manage an input with tokens.

Types and masks

• Input mask: Several input masks can be used for each type of Edit control.
  These input masks are multilingual: different input masks can be selected according to the runtime language of the project. For more details, see Multiple languages in the controls.
  These input masks can be modified programmatically with the InputMask property.
  
• Display mask: You can also define display masks for some types of controls (Currency, Currency + Euro, Date, Time and Duration). These display masks are used to define the characteristics of the control when it is not in edit.
  For example, a Date control can have:
  • the input mask: "DD/MM/YYYY".
  • the display mask: "DDDD DD MMMM YYYY" (long date format).
  Display masks can be multilingual and can be modified programmatically with the DisplayMask property.

Other important characteristics

An Edit control can:

• be used to perform a "Drag and Drop". For more details, see Managing Drag and Drop.
• use assisted input: When a user enters data in the control, the application automatically proposes the corresponding value from the HFSQL key item linked to the control.
  For example, in the "City" control, "London" is automatically proposed once "Lo" is typed.
  This feature can only be used with key items and Text items.
  Assisted input cannot be used with non-key items, numeric items, or if an input mask is used for dates. For more details, see Input suggestions in an Edit control

An Edit control can also include:

• a spelling checker that uses:
  • the OpenOffice dictionary installed on the computer, or a spelling and grammar checker that uses the Word dictionary.
  • an integrated spelling checker (based on Hunspell dictionaries).
  • The type of spelling checker can be selected in the project description window ("Options" tab).

• an input history: When a users starts typing in the control, the list of values previously entered will appear automatically. This input history is not available for multiline controls. For more details, see Saving entered data (AAF).
• help during the input of file path. This option shows the different directories and files accessible as the user types a file name with its path. This option is not available if the standard assisted input is already used for the control.

Edit control style

• The control caption: You can define the text font, position, color, etc.
• The outside border.
• The text in the input area.
• The input area: For example, you can define the background color, border color, ...
  Remark: The "Margins" button allows you to set the margins between the text and the border of of the input area.
• The hint text.
• The tokens (if any).
• Invalid or required input indicators.
• ...