Question

I have a Windows application that uses a .NET PropertyGrid control. Is it possible to change the type of control that is used for the value field of a property?

I would like to be able to use a RichTextBox to allow better formatting of the input value. Can this be done without creating a custom editor class?

Answer 1

To add your own custom editing when the user selects a property grid value you need to implement a class that derives from UITypeEditor. You then have the choice of showing just a small popup window below the property area or a full blown dialog box.

What is nice is that you can reuse the existing implementations. So to add the ability to multiline edit a string you just do this…

[Editor(typeof(MultilineStringEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))] public override string Text {     get { return _string; }     set { _string = value; } } 

Another nice one they provide for you is the ability to edit an array of strings…

[Editor('System.Windows.Forms.Design.StringArrayEditor,           System.Design, Version=2.0.0.0,           Culture=neutral,           PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a',           typeof(UITypeEditor))] public string[] Lines {     get { return _lines; }     set { _lines = value; } }