Article ID: 981904 - Last Review: March 31, 2010 - Revision: 1.1

How to work with text in Silverlight 3

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INTRODUCTION

Text plays a critical role in many applications. Microsoft Silverlight 3 provides extensive support for working with texts. This article describes an All-In-One Code Framework sample that is available for downloading. This sample includes a step-by-step guide about how to work with text in Silverlight 3.

This article covers the following functionalities:

Create a simple TextBlock
Create a TextBlock with multiple Runs and LineBreaks
Create a TextBlock with advanced format
Select all text in a TextBox using code

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Difficulty level

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Download information

To download this code sample, click the following link:

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Technical overview

To customize the way text is displayed in Silverlight, you can use various methods. For example, to use custom font, you can use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Include the custom font file in the Silverlight project.

Note In this sample, the custom font file is Magnetob.ttf.
Select the custom font file in the Solution Explorer window of Microsoft Visual Studio.
In the Properties window, set Build Action to Resource.
Set FontFamily in XAML by using the following syntax:
<TextBlock FontFamily="Magnetob.ttf#Magneto"…
Or, set FontFamily at code behind, as it is set in the sample:
paragraph1.FontFamily = new FontFamily("Magnetob.ttf#Magneto");
Note In this sample code, Magnetob.ttf is the font file name. The file name is case insensitive. Additionally, because one font file may contain multiple fonts, you must specify the fonts that you want to use. In this sample code, the Magneto font was specified.

Method 2

In Expression Blend, click the Font Manager button that is on the Text tab in the Properties panel.
Select the font(s) that you want to embed in the Silverlight application.
Select your text control, and then choose the desired font for the text control.

Font management is just one of the text features that are supported by Silverlight 3. For more information about how to work with text in Silverlight 3, run the sample project. The sample itself is an interactive document.

Note For more information about how to create and then deploy the sample application, refer to the Readme.txt file that is included in the download package.

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Technology category

Silverlight

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Languages

This code sample contains the following programming languages.

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Language	Project Name
Visual C#	CSSL3Text
Visual Basic .NET	VBSL3Text
XAML	XAMLSL3Text

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Prerequisites

Microsoft® Silverlight™ 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9442b0f2-7465-417a-88f3-5e7b5409e9dd&displaylang=en)
Silverilght 3 runtime (http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/)
This sample application was created by using Visual Studio 2008 with Service Pack 1 installed.

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MORE INFORMATION

What is All-In-One Code Framework?

All-In-One Code Framework uses code samples in different programming languages to illustrate most Microsoft development techniques. Each code sample is carefully selected, composed, and documented to show common code scenarios. For more information about All-In-One Code Framework, visit the following All-In-One Code Framework Web site:

About All-In-One Code Framework (http://cfx.codeplex.com)

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How to find more All-In-One Code Framework samples

To find more All-In-One Code Framework samples, search for "kbcodefx" together with related keywords on the Microsoft support Web site. Or, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

All-In-One Code Framework samples (http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?query=kbcodefx)

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REFERENCES

For more information, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web sites:

MSDN: TextBox class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.textbox(VS.95).aspx)
MSDN: TextBlock class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.textblock(VS.95).aspx)

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