Question

Good day,

I have been searching for a way to format output using writeline/write (streamwriter)
using RTF tags and wondering if there is a syntax for this, if it exists. I have not
been able to find a resource which clearly explains how to “pretty” up output sent to a
file.

The reason why I am asking is because I want to “print” results from my program into
a file that, at the very least, would be centered, tabbed and even bolded where possible
without requiring the user to go and futz with it. I think I saw that Crystal Reports
won’t work with VB 2010 Express and, quite frankly, just want to create a file with
output.

The problem I am having is how I can make output look less like writeline did it
(you know, writeliney-ish) and more like someone took the time to make writeline
look like it did something awesome.

Here’s some code to show you what I’m trying to do:

sw.Write("                    RATE QUOTATION ")
            sw.WriteLine("   ")
            sw.WriteLine("           ")
            sw.WriteLine(mycompanyname)
            sw.WriteLine(mycompanyaddress1 + ControlChars.Tab + "Phone:", companyphone)
            sw.WriteLine(mycompanyaddress3 + ControlChars.Tab + "Fax:", companyfax)
            sw.WriteLine(cityname, stateprovince, zippostal)
            sw.WriteLine("Visit us online at:", websiteaddress)
            sw.WriteLine("    ")
            sw.WriteLine("Quoted by:", contactname + " " + "E-mail:", contactemail)
            sw.Write("Date: ")
            sw.WriteLine(DateTime.Now)
            sw.WriteLine(" ")
            sw.WriteLine(("Customer Name:" + "   " + quotename.Text), "Company:" + "   " + quotecompany.Text + " " + "Customer E-mail:" + "   " + quoteemail.Text)
            sw.WriteLine(("Phone:" + "   " + quotephone.Text + ControlChars.Tab + "Fax:" + "   " + quotefax.Text))
            sw.WriteLine("  ")
            sw.WriteLine("Shipment Details:")

Is there a way to control writeline in such a way that you can create an RTF via streamwriter and specify formatting tags, like centering and bold, etc? I’m trying to think of a way so that the RTF header information is created when streamwriter starts it’s business and prints what I want out. I don’t think there’s an elegant way to create a PDF either so I’m kind of opting for old school output for now.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As promised, started playing with some code and thought I’d share it, although I’m still trying to figure out why vbNewLine doesn’t work. :/

Originally, I was trying to use streamwriter to embed RTF codes, like (\rtf1) and (\b) etc..but these do not work within writeline statements that I tried, such as:

writeline(“\b This is in bold \b0”)

So by pretending to have a richtext box (rtb), you can create a file that will allow font formatting and other text formatting (albeit still trying to figure out a few things lol),
which may be an alternative to streamwriter if you care about how output appears in a file.

Public Class Form1

Private Property richtextbox1 As Object

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Dim something As String
    Dim somethingelse As String
    Dim butwaittheresstillmore As String

    something = TextBox1.Text
    somethingelse = TextBox2.Text
    butwaittheresstillmore = TextBox3.Text

    Save1.InitialDirectory = "c:\users\shawn\desktop"
    Save1.FileName = " "
    Save1.Filter = " RTF file | *.rtf"
    Save1.ShowDialog()


    Dim rtb As New RichTextBox
    rtb.SelectionAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center
    rtb.Text = something & vbNewLine

    rtb.SelectionAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left
    rtb.Text = somethingelse + (" another field: ") + butwaittheresstillmore
    rtb.SelectAll()
    rtb.SelectionFont = New Font(New FontFamily("Arial"), 12, FontStyle.Regular,
    GraphicsUnit.Pixel)
    rtb.SaveFile(Save1.FileName)
End Sub

End Class

I wanted to control the font and alignment and this seems to do the trick, although I’m trying to sort out using “tab” position and line feeds. I see that I can align left, center and right. Anyway, I hope this helps someone who might otherwise want a quick way to make a document where they can control the font.

Thanks!