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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Selection (object) |
Access paths:
▪Application à Documents à Item à Selection
▪Application à ActiveDocument à Selection
1 Description
Selection represents the current selection in a document.
If text is selected, the Selection object represents the contents of this selection. If nothing is selected, the Selection object represents the current cursor position. If you add text (for example, with the method Selection.TypeText), the contents of the selected area will be replaced with this text. If nothing was selected, the text will be pasted at the current cursor position.
You can use the Font object accessible from Selection to make changes in the text formatting. Example: tmActiveDocumentSelectionFontSize = 24 changes the font size for the text selected in the active document to 24 points.
2 Access to the object
Each open document has exactly one instance of the Selection object. It can be accessed through Document.Selection:
' Copy the selection from the current document to the clipboard
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.Copy
3 Properties, objects, collections and methods
Objects:
▪Document → Document
▪Font → Font
▪Application → Application
▪Parent → Document
Methods:
▪Copy
▪Cut
▪Paste
▪Delete
▪TypeText
▪TypeParagraph
▪TypeBackspace
▪InsertBreak
▪GoTo
▪ConvertToTable
▪SetRange
▪InsertPicture
Document (pointer to object)
Data type: Object
Returns the Document object which belongs to the current selection.
Font (pointer to object)
Data type: Object
Returns the Font object which belongs to the current selection. It contains properties for reading and changing the character formatting in the selection.
Application (pointer to object)
Data type: Object
Returns the Application object.
Parent (pointer to object)
Data type: Object
Returns the parent object, i.e. an object of the type Document.
Copy (method)
Copies the content of the selection to the clipboard.
Syntax:
Copy
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Copy the active selection to the clipboard
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.Copy
Cut (method)
Cuts the content of the selection and places it in the clipboard.
Syntax:
Cut
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Cut the current selection and place it in the clipboard
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.Cut
Paste (method)
Pastes the content of the clipboard into the selection.
Syntax:
Paste
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Replace the active selection with the contents of the clipboard
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.Paste
Delete (method)
Deletes the content of the selection.
Syntax:
Delete
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Delete the active selection
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.Delete
TypeText (method)
Insert a string into the selection.
Syntax:
TypeText Text
Parameters:
| Text (type: String) is the string to be inserted. |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Insert text at the current cursor position in the active document
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.TypeText "Programming with BasicMaker"
TypeParagraph (method)
Insert a carriage return character (CR) into the selection.
Syntax:
TypeParagraph
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Insert a carriage rueturn at the current cursor position in the active document
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.TypeParagraph
TypeBackspace (method)
Insert a backspace character.
Syntax:
TypeBackspace
Parameters:
| none |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Execute a backspace at the current cursor position in the active document
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.TypeBackspace
InsertBreak (method)
Inserts a manual break.
Syntax:
InsertBreak [Type]
Parameters:
| Type (optional; type: Long or TmBreakType) defines the type of the break. The possible values are: |
tmLineBreak = 0 ' Line break
tmColumnBreak = 1 ' Column break
tmSectionBreak = 2 ' Section break
tmPageBreak = 3 ' Page break
tmChapterBreak = 4 ' Chapter break
| If you omit the Type parameter, the value tmPageBreak will be assumed. |
Return type:
| none |
Example:
' Insert a page break at the current cursor position
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.InsertBreak tmPageBreak
GoTo (method)
Moves the text cursor to the specified position.
Syntax:
GoTo [What], [Which], [Count], [NumRow], [NumCol]
Parameters:
| What (optional; type: Long or TmGoToItem) indicates whether the destination is a table or a paragraph: |
tmGoToParagraph = 1 ' Paragraph
tmGoToTable = 2 ' Table
| If you omit the What parameter, the value tmGoToParagraph will be assumed. |
| Which (optional; type: Long or TmGoToDirection) indicates whether the movement should be absolute or relative to the current position: |
tmGoToAbsolute = 1 ' absolute
tmGoToRelative = 2 ' relative
| If you omit the Which parameter, the value tmGoToAbsolute will be assumed. |
| Count (optional; type: Long) indicates the number of the item (i.e. the index of the table or the index of the paragraph in the document) that should be accessed. |
| If you omit the Count parameter, the value 1 will be assumed. |
| NumRow (optional; type: Long): If What is set to tmGoToTable, this parameter optionally allows you to specify into which line of the table the cursor should be moved. |
| NumCol (optional; type: Long): If What is set to tmGoToTable, this parameter optionally allows you to specify into which row of the table the cursor should be moved. |
Return type:
| none |
Examples:
' Move the cursor to the fourth paragraph
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.GoTo tmGoToParagraph, tmGoToAbsolute, 4
' Move the cursor to the previous paragraph
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.GoTo tmGoToParagraph, tmGoToRelative, -1
' Move the cursor to the first line of the first table
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.GoTo tmGoToTable, tmGoToAbsolute, 1, 1, 1
ConvertToTable (method)
Converts the selected text to a table.
Syntax:
ConvertToTable [NumRows], [NumCols], [Separator], [RemoveQuotationMarks], [RemoveSpaces]
Parameters:
| NumRows (optional; type: Long) indicates how many rows the table should have. If omitted, TextMaker will calculate the number of lines by itself. |
| NumCols (optional; type: Long) indicates how many columns the table should have. If omitted, TextMaker will calculate the number of columns by itself. |
| Separator (optional; type: either String or Long or TmTableFieldSeparator) specifies one or more characters that TextMaker should use to recognize the columns. You can provide either a string or one of the following constants: |
tmSeparateByCommas = 0 ' Columns separated by commas
tmSeparateByParagraphs = 1 ' Columns separated by paragraphs
tmSeparateByTabs = 2 ' Columns separated by tabs
tmSeparateBySemicolons = 3 ' Columns separated by semicolons
| If you omit this parameter, the value tmSeparateByTabs will be assumed. |
| RemoveQuotationMarks (optional; type: Boolean): Set this parameter to True, if TextMaker should delete all leading and trailing quotation marks from the entries. If you omit this parameter, the value False will be assumed. |
| RemoveSpaces (optional; type: Boolean): Set this parameter to True, if TextMaker should delete all leading and trailing space characters from the entries. If you omit this parameter, the value True will be assumed. |
Return type:
| Object (a Table object which represents the new table) |
Examples:
' Convert the current selection to a table. The column separator is the comma.
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.ConvertToTable Separator := tmSeparateByCommas
' Here, slashes are used as the separator:
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.ConvertToTable Separator := "/"
SetRange (method)
Sets the start and end point of the selection by specifying their character positions.
Syntax:
SetRange Start, End
Parameters:
| Start (type: Long) sets the start position of the new selection, specified as the number of characters from the document beginning. |
| End (type: Long) sets the end position of the new selection, specified as the number of characters from the document beginning. |
Return type:
| none |
Examples:
' Select from character 1 to character 4 of the active document
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.SetRange 1, 4
Tip: You can also use this method to select whole paragraphs. For this purpose, use the Paragraph.Range.Start and Paragraph.Range.End values to indicate the start and end position of the paragraph and pass them to the SetRange method.
InsertPicture (method)
Insert a picture from a file into the selection.
Syntax:
InsertPicture PictureName
Parameters:
| PictureName (type: String) is the path and file name of the picture to be inserted. |
Return type:
| none |
Examples:
' Insert a picture at the current position
tm.ActiveDocument.Selection.InsertPicture "c:\Pictures\Fish.bmp"