alter textstyle 'on the fly'

[glenn9]

Dear all

I'm wanting to alter textstyle as I type and although I've solved it with a 'kludge', I was wondering if there was a better way of achieving this?

Specifically what I'm wanting to achieve is that if a specific character is entered then the colour of that character is then changed.

I've managed to achieve this with the following code:

Code: Select all

     on rawkeyup
        if the last char of fld"Notes" is "z" then
        set the forecolor of the last char of fld"Notes" to red
  else
     	set the forecolor of the last char of fld"Notes" to black
  end if
   end rawkeyup

This works to a degree but if I then alter already typed text to the specified text, then of course this doesn't work!

I guess what I want to code is something like this (which of course doesn't work!)...

Code: Select all

...
if rawkeyup is "z" then 
set the forecolor of rawkeyup to red
...

Grateful for any ideas...

Thanks,

Glenn

[Klaus]

Hi Glenn,

This works to a degree but if I then alter already typed text to the specified text, then of course this doesn't work!

sorry, don't understand?


Best

Klaus

[jmburnod]

Hi,
You may use keyup instead rawkeyup (rawkeyup return a integer)
Something like that

Code: Select all

on keyup pKey
if pKey = "z" then
   set the forecolor of the last char of fld "Notes" to red
end if	
end keyup

Best regards
Jean-Marc

[glenn9]

Hi Glenn,

This works to a degree but if I then alter already typed text to the specified text, then of course this doesn't work!

sorry, don't understand?


Best

Klaus

Hi Klaus,

apologies for the awkward wording.

if the last character I type is a 'z' then the code will as expected change the colour of the 'z' to red.

If however I go back to text that is already in the field, and change one of characters to a 'z', the colour of the 'z' wont of course change, but the last char of the field (whatever it might be) will change to red!

I guess what I'm looking for is a way of scripting 'keyup' to change the textstyle of a char as its typed, independent of where it is in the field, as at the moment I can only do this for the last char of a field?

Hope this makes sense!

Thanks,

Glenn

[Klaus]

Aha, thanks, get it now!

[jmburnod]

Hi Glen,
This works for an insertion, not for a selection

Code: Select all

on keyUp pk
   put the selectedchunk into tSC
   put the value of word 4 of tSC into tNumC
   if pk = "z" then
      set the forecolor of char tNumC of fld "notes" to red
   else
      set the forecolor of char tNumC of fld "notes" to black
   end if
end keyUp

[Klaus]

Cool!

but no need to use VALUE!

Code: Select all

...
put word 4 of tSC into tNumC
...

Will do.

[glenn9]

Hi Glen,
This works for an insertion, not for a selection

Code: Select all

on keyUp pk
   put the selectedchunk into tSC
   put the value of word 4 of tSC into tNumC
   if pk = "z" then
      set the forecolor of char tNumC of fld "notes" to red
   else
      set the forecolor of char tNumC of fld "notes" to black
   end if
end keyUp

Hi Jean-Marc,

Many thanks, this works perfectly and exactly how I was imagining it.

Initially I couldn't understand at all why it worked but on checking the dictionary and going into debug mode I now see why it works and why 'word 4' is important.

after now seeing how this works I can only echo Klaus's comment... very cool!

Thank you again.

Regards,

Glenn

[jmburnod]

Hi Glenn,
Glad when I can help
This version below works with a selection

Code: Select all

on keyUp pk
   put the selectedchunk into tSC
   put  word 2 of tSC into tStart
   put  word 4 of tSC into tEnd 
   if tStart > tEnd then
      put tEnd into tNumS
   else
      put tStart into tNumS
   end if
   if pk = "z" then
      set the forecolor of char tNumS of fld "notes" to red
   else
      set the forecolor of char tNumS of fld "notes" to black
   end if
end keyUp

P.S: I'm curious to know why you need it.
Best
Jean-Marc

[glenn9]

Thanks Jean-Marc,

The background is that I'm often in a position where I am taking almost verbatim typed notes during a conversation, and if there are any points raised that require further clarification, rather than interrupt the conversation flow, I simply type a quick marker after the item raised, usually a '(' rather than the 'z'!, so that I can then revisit the item at the end of the conversation and add more details.

If the notes are lengthy I've sometimes nearly overlooked the points that I wanted more detail on, and so having the marker in red makes it easier for me to spot!

Hope of interest.

Regards,

Glenn

[dunbarx]

Fun stuff. I would make the "markers" more prominent than simply making a single char red. Maybe change the textSize of that char?

Craig

[jmburnod]

Hi Glenn,
Thank you for your message.
Interessant challenge
I wonder if using metadata property would be useful in your "scribe" position.
Just an idea
When you type your marker char you can select a keyword among a list which become the metadata of the previous word.

Best regards
Jean-Marc

[dunbarx]

Jean-Marc.

The "metaData" of a char or word is way cool. I have never used it, but wish I had a reason to. It is sort of like a custom property, but assigned to chunks.

But how would that stand out when the reader is trying to locate specific locations in a body of text that are of interest?

Craig

[dunbarx]

Well, one way would be to set, say, the backColor of the chunk of interest so it can be found easily, and if the lockText of the field is set:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   answer the metaData of the clickchunk
end mouseUp

The metaData being a text string of any length. This can be written when the "special" char or word is typed. An "ask" dialog can pop up where the user can enter a notation, and set the metaData to that text.

Craig

[jmburnod]

Hi Craig,

But how would that stand out when the reader is trying to locate specific locations in a body of text that are of interest?

Why not set the textstyle of target word to "link" ?

Jean-Marc