How to add text to the control

Return to index

How to add text to the control

The simplest way to display texts over the control surface is to open, at Design-time, the 3D Button Visual Editor application from inside the Visual Studio.NET IDE as described inside the chapter Editing control properties through the 3D Button Visual Editor application contained inside the How to use the product in your projects section and selecting the editor "Text" tab; as you will see on the table below, you can reach all of these settings at runtime using the corresponding property.

As you can see on the image below you have the possibility to enter at the same time up to 9 different texts over the button surface, each with its own fonts, settings and colors.

Note: The image below has hot links to take you to explanations of the text controls.

Item name	Description	Corresponding property
Available texts	The set of available texts that can be displayed on the button surface: clicking one of these buttons will load the settings that govern the selected text.
Caption button	Loads the Caption text settings	TextDescrCaption or Caption
Left Top button	Loads the Left Top text settings	TextDescrLT
Center Top button	Loads the Center Top text settings	TextDescrCT
Right Top button	Loads the Right Top text settings	TextDescrRT
Left Middle button	Loads the Left Middle text settings	TextDescrLM
Right Middle button	Loads the Right Middle text settings	TextDescrRM
Left Bottom button	Loads the Left Bottom text settings	TextDescrLB
Center Bottom button	Loads the Center Bottom text settings	TextDescrCB
Right Bottom button	Loads the Left Right Bottom text settings	TextDescrRB

The properties TextDescrCaption, TextDescrLT, TextDescrCT, TextDescrRT, TextDescrLM, TextDescrRM, TextDescrLB, TextDescrCB, and TextDescrRB are internally implemented as "expandable objects" of class TextDescriptor: thanks to this "object oriented" approach, each of these properties have a set of sub-properties that allow a better control of the following "text rendering" aspects:

Item name	Description	Corresponding property

Text	The text that will appear over the button: it can be multi-line (press the Enter key each time you need to create a new line of text).	TextDescriptor.Text
Visible	Hides/shows the selected text	TextDescriptor.Visible
Offset X	Offset from the default horizontal position	TextDescriptor.OffsetX
Offset Y	Offset from the default vertical position	TextDescriptor.OffsetY
Effect	Enhancement special effect applied to text	TextDescriptor.SpecialEffect
Factor	Enhancement special effect factor	TextDescriptor.SpecialEffectFactor
Double space	Applies/removes double space (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.DoubleSpace
Antialias	Applies/removes anti-aliasing to text borders (Not available with Light edition)	TextDescriptor.Antialias
Transparency	Applies alpha channel transparency to text. (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.TransparentFactor
Rotation angle	Text rotation angle (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.Angle
Normal Color (Up)	Text color when the button is in Normal state.	TextDescriptor.ColorNormal or ForeColor
Mouse over Color	Text color when the mouse is over the button surface: if this color is left undefined the Normal Color will be used. The undefined state is represented with the symbol inside the color box. Once the color has been defined, it can be reset back to the undefined state by double-clicking the relative color box (not the "..." button).	TextDescriptor.ColorMouseOver
Pressed Color (Down)	Text color when the button is in Pressed state: if this color is left "undefined" the Normal Color will be used. The undefined state is represented with the symbol inside the color box. Once the color has been defined, it can be reset back to the undefined state by double-clicking the relative color box (not the "..." button).	TextDescriptor.ColorPressed
Disabled Color (all)	Text color when the button is in Disabled state: this property applies to all texts at the same time.	ForeColorDisabled
Highlight effect color	Color of the highlighted text portion (available when a special effect is applied): if this color is left undefined the color will be calculated automatically. The undefined state is represented with the symbol inside the color box. Once the color has been defined, it can be reset back to the undefined state by double-clicking the relative color box (not the "..." button).	TextDescriptor.ColorHighlight
Shadow effect color	Color of the shadowed text portion (available when a special effect is applied): if this color is left undefined the color will be calculated automatically. The undefined state is represented with the symbol inside the color box. Once the color has been defined, it can be reset back to the undefined state by double-clicking the relative color box (not the "..." button).	TextDescriptor.ColorShadow
Halo effect color	Color used to create a Halo special effect. (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.ColorHalo
Solid background	Applies/removes a solid background under the text position (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.SolidBack
Solid background Color	Color of the solid background, if any (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.ColorSolidBack
Background border	Applies/removes a line border around the text position (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.Border
Background border Color	Color of the border, if any (Not available with Light edition)	TextDescriptor.ColorBorder
Background shadow	Applies/removes a shadow to the text solid background, if any (Available only with Professional edition)	TextDescriptor.SolidBackShadow
Background shadow Color	Color of the shadow, if any (Not available with Light edition)	TextDescriptor.ColorSolidBackShadow
"..." color editing buttons	These buttons will open the color choice dialog box for the corresponding property.

The Caption text has a couple of further features for better control of text positioning.

Item name	Description	Corresponding property
Align	The text alignment (Left, Center and Right).	TextCaptionAlignment
Wordwrap %	Constrains the button surface percentage that will contain the text.	CaptionWordWrapPerc

Fonts related settings are managed through the use of the following properties: FontTextCaption, FontTextLT, FontTextCT, FontTextRT, FontTextLM, FontTextRM, FontTextLB, FontTextCB and FontTextRB. These properties are implemented using the standard Font class (check the Microsoft documentation or MSDN for details) so each of these properties has a set of standard sub-properties that allow a better control of the following aspects of the "font rendering":

Item name	Description	Corresponding property
Font	The font name (also known as typeface or facename): only TrueType (marked with the symbol) and OpenType (marked with the symbol) fonts are supported.	Font.Name
Size	The height of the button expressed in points	Font.Size
B Bold checkbox	Sets/resets the bold attribute	Font.Bold
I Italic checkbox	Sets/resets the italic attribute	Font.Italic
U Underline checkbox	Sets/resets the underline attribute	Font.Underline
S Strikethrough checkbox	Sets/resets the strikethrough attribute	Font.Strikethrough