PRB: RichTextBox Control Saves Locale Setting When Created

Text entered into a RichTextBox control at run-time uses a keyboard layout that is different than the current setting.

When the RichTextBox control was initially added to the form, the then- current keyboard setting was saved with the text in the text property of the control.

There are several possible workarounds depending on the version of the control you are working with.

With version 6.0 of the control there are two workarounds:

1. When adding the control to a form, delete the text in the text property. If the control has no text, the layout setting will not be saved.
2. Select all the text in the RichTextBox control and set the keyboard locale to the language desired.

With Version 5.0 and earlier of the control, use the following code to check the keyboard layout of the form and use it as the check value. Then check the keyboard layout of the RichTextBox control and change it to the form's value if different.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Add the following code to General Declarations section of the form module:

         Option Explicit
   
         Private Declare Function GetKeyboardLayoutName Lib "user32" Alias _
         "GetKeyboardLayoutNameA" (ByVal pwszKLID As String) As Long
   
         Private Declare Function LoadKeyboardLayout Lib "user32" Alias _
         "LoadKeyboardLayoutA" (ByVal pwszKLID As String, _
         ByVal flags As Long) As Long
   
         Dim K1 As String * 10
         Dim KybdOriginal As Long
   						

2. Add the following code to the form Load event procedure:

         K1 = Space$(10)
         KybdOriginal = GetKeyboardLayoutName(K1)
   						

3. Add the following code to the GotFocus event procedure of the RichTextBox control:

         Dim K2 As String * 10
         Dim KybdCode As Long
   
         K2 = Space$(10)
         KybdCode = GetKeyboardLayoutName(K2)
   
         If (K1 <> K2) Then KybdCode = LoadKeyboardLayout(K1, 1)
   						

This should reset the keyboard layout setting for the RichTextBox control to match the layout used by the form.

This behavior is by design. The RichTextBox control saves the language setting when text is saved.

When a RichTextBox control is added to a form, default text is added to the text property. When the form is saved the RTF data format includes the keyboard settings as part of the font information.

Version 6.0 of the control does not save the keyboard setting if the text property of the control is empty. Previous versions of the control saved the setting regardless of the contents of the text property.

The keyboard (Locale) setting can be changed in Control Panel/Regional Settings.

Online Help for Microsoft Visual Basic, versions 4.0 and 5.0

Books Online for Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 and 6.0