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The .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI)
Editor
allows you to enter and edit multiple lines of text.
Editor
defines the following properties:
AutoSize
, of type
EditorAutoSizeOption
, defines whether the editor will change size to accommodate user input. By default, the editor doesn't auto size.
CharacterSpacing
, of type
double
, sets the spacing between characters in the entered text.
CursorPosition
, of type
int
, defines the position of the cursor within the editor.
FontAttributes
, of type
FontAttributes
, determines text style.
FontAutoScalingEnabled
, of type
bool
, defines whether the text will reflect scaling preferences set in the operating system. The default value of this property is
true
.
FontFamily
, of type
string
, defines the font family.
FontSize
, of type
double
, defines the font size.
HorizontalTextAlignment
, of type
TextAlignment
, defines the horizontal alignment of the text.
IsTextPredictionEnabled
, of type
bool
, controls whether text prediction and automatic text correction is enabled.
Placeholder
, of type
string
, defines the text that's displayed when the control is empty.
PlaceholderColor
, of type
Color
, defines the color of the placeholder text.
SelectionLength
, of type
int
, represents the length of selected text within the editor.
Text
, of type
string
, defines the text entered into the editor.
TextColor
, of type
Color
, defines the color of the entered text.
VerticalTextAlignment
, of type
TextAlignment
, defines the vertical alignment of the text.
These properties are backed by
BindableProperty
objects, which means that they can be targets of data bindings, and styled.
In addition,
Editor
defines a
Completed
event, which is raised when the user finalizes text in the
Editor
with the return key.
Editor
derives from the
InputView
class, from which it inherits the following properties:
IsReadOnly
, of type
bool
, defines whether the user should be prevented from modifying text. The default value of this property is
false
.
IsSpellCheckEnabled
, of type
bool
, controls whether spell checking is enabled.
Keyboard
, of type
Keyboard
, specifies the virtual keyboard that's displayed when entering text.
MaxLength
, of type
int
, defines the maximum input length.
TextTransform
, of type
TextTransform
, specifies the casing of the entered text.
These properties are backed by
BindableProperty
objects, which means that they can be targets of data bindings, and styled.
In addition,
InputView
defines a
TextChanged
event, which is raised when the text in the
Editor
changes. The
TextChangedEventArgs
object that accompanies the
TextChanged
event has
NewTextValue
and
OldTextValue
properties, which specify the new and old text, respectively.
For information about specifying fonts on an
Editor
, see
Fonts
.
Create an Editor
The following example shows how to create an
Editor
:
<Editor x:Name="editor"
Placeholder="Enter your response here"
HeightRequest="250"
TextChanged="OnEditorTextChanged"
Completed="OnEditorCompleted" />
The equivalent C# code is:
Editor editor = new Editor { Placeholder = "Enter text", HeightRequest = 250 };
editor.TextChanged += OnEditorTextChanged;
editor.Completed += OnEditorCompleted;
The following screenshot shows the resulting Editor on Android:
Entered text can be accessed by reading the Text
property, and the TextChanged
and Completed
events signal that the text has changed or been completed.
The TextChanged
event is raised when the text in the Editor changes, and the TextChangedEventArgs
provide the text before and after the change via the OldTextValue
and NewTextValue
properties:
void OnEditorTextChanged(object sender, TextChangedEventArgs e)
string oldText = e.OldTextValue;
string newText = e.NewTextValue;
string myText = editor.Text;
The Completed
event is raised when the user has ended input by pressing the return key on the keyboard, or by pressing the Tab key on Windows. The handler for the event is a generic event handler:
void OnEditorCompleted(object sender, EventArgs e)
string text = ((Editor)sender).Text;
Set character spacing
Character spacing can be applied to an Editor by setting the CharacterSpacing
property to a double
value:
<Editor ...
CharacterSpacing="10" />
The result is that characters in the text displayed by the Editor are spaced CharacterSpacing
device-independent units apart.
The CharacterSpacing
property value is applied to the text displayed by the Text
and Placeholder
properties.
The MaxLength
property can be used to limit the input length that's permitted for the Editor. This property should be set to a positive integer:
<Editor ... MaxLength="10" />
A MaxLength
property value of 0 indicates that no input will be allowed, and a value of int.MaxValue
, which is the default value for an Editor, indicates that there is no effective limit on the number of characters that may be entered.
Auto-size an Editor
An Editor can be made to auto-size to its content by setting the Editor.AutoSize
property to TextChanges
, which is a value of the EditorAutoSizeOption
enumeration. This enumeration has two values:
Disabled
indicates that automatic resizing is disabled, and is the default value.
TextChanges
indicates that automatic resizing is enabled.
This can be accomplished as follows:
<Editor Text="Enter text here"
AutoSize="TextChanges" />
When auto-resizing is enabled, the height of the Editor will increase when the user fills it with text, and the height will decrease as the user deletes text.
An Editor will not auto-size if the HeightRequest property has been set.
Transform text
An Editor can transform the casing of its text, stored in the Text
property, by setting the TextTransform
property to a value of the TextTransform
enumeration. This enumeration has four values:
None
indicates that the text won't be transformed.
Default
indicates that the default behavior for the platform will be used. This is the default value of the TextTransform
property.
Lowercase
indicates that the text will be transformed to lowercase.
Uppercase
indicates that the text will be transformed to uppercase.
The following example shows transforming text to uppercase:
<Editor Text="This text will be displayed in uppercase."
TextTransform="Uppercase" />
Customize the keyboard
The keyboard that's presented when users interact with an Editor can be set programmatically via the Keyboard
property, to one of the following properties from the Keyboard
class:
Chat
– used for texting and places where emoji are useful.
Default
– the default keyboard.
Email
– used when entering email addresses.
Numeric
– used when entering numbers.
Plain
– used when entering text, without any KeyboardFlags
specified.
Telephone
– used when entering telephone numbers.
Text
– used when entering text.
Url
– used for entering file paths & web addresses.
The following example shows setting the Keyboard
property:
<Editor Keyboard="Chat" />
The Keyboard
class also has a Create
factory method that can be used to customize a keyboard by specifying capitalization, spellcheck, and suggestion behavior. KeyboardFlags
enumeration values are specified as arguments to the method, with a customized Keyboard
being returned. The KeyboardFlags
enumeration contains the following values:
None
– no features are added to the keyboard.
CapitalizeSentence
– indicates that the first letter of the first word of each entered sentence will be automatically capitalized.
Spellcheck
– indicates that spellcheck will be performed on entered text.
Suggestions
– indicates that word completions will be offered on entered text.
CapitalizeWord
– indicates that the first letter of each word will be automatically capitalized.
CapitalizeCharacter
– indicates that every character will be automatically capitalized.
CapitalizeNone
– indicates that no automatic capitalization will occur.
All
– indicates that spellcheck, word completions, and sentence capitalization will occur on entered text.
The following XAML code example shows how to customize the default Keyboard
to offer word completions and capitalize every entered character:
<Editor>
<Editor.Keyboard>
<Keyboard x:FactoryMethod="Create">
<x:Arguments>
<KeyboardFlags>Suggestions,CapitalizeCharacter</KeyboardFlags>
</x:Arguments>
</Keyboard>
</Editor.Keyboard>
</Editor>
The equivalent C# code is:
Editor editor = new Editor();
editor.Keyboard = Keyboard.Create(KeyboardFlags.Suggestions | KeyboardFlags.CapitalizeCharacter);
Enable and disable spell checking
The IsSpellCheckEnabled
property controls whether spell checking is enabled. By default, the property is set to true
. As the user enters text, misspellings are indicated.
However, for some text entry scenarios, such as entering a username, spell checking provides a negative experience and so should be disabled by setting the IsSpellCheckEnabled
property to false
:
<Editor ... IsSpellCheckEnabled="false" />
When the IsSpellCheckEnabled
property is set to false
, and a custom keyboard isn't being used, the native spell checker will be disabled. However, if a Keyboard
has been set that disables spell checking, such as Keyboard.Chat
, the IsSpellCheckEnabled
property is ignored. Therefore, the property cannot be used to enable spell checking for a Keyboard
that explicitly disables it.
Enable and disable text prediction
The IsTextPredictionEnabled
property controls whether text prediction and automatic text correction is enabled. By default, the property is set to true
. As the user enters text, word predictions are presented.
However, for some text entry scenarios, such as entering a username, text prediction and automatic text correction provides a negative experience and should be disabled by setting the IsTextPredictionEnabled
property to false
:
<Editor ... IsTextPredictionEnabled="false" />
When the IsTextPredictionEnabled
property is set to false
, and a custom keyboard isn't being used, text prediction and automatic text correction is disabled. However, if a Keyboard
has been set that disables text prediction, the IsTextPredictionEnabled
property is ignored. Therefore, the property cannot be used to enable text prediction for a Keyboard
that explicitly disables it.
Prevent text entry
Users can be prevented from modifying the text in an Editor by setting the IsReadOnly
property, which has a default value of false
, to true
:
<Editor Text="This is a read-only Editor"
IsReadOnly="true" />
The IsReadonly
property does not alter the visual appearance of an Editor, unlike the IsEnabled
property that also changes the visual appearance of the Editor to gray.