We've got an exciting new SyntaxEditor feature to announce that's been desired by a number of customers.  And best of all, it's coming to all our supported platforms:  WPF, Silverlight, WinRT/XAML (coming very shortly), and WinForms.

The new feature is the ability to edit multiple lines when a block selection is active, also known as column editing.  First, let's review block selections.

Block Selection

Block selection occurs when you hold Shift+Alt and press the arrow keys.  For instance if you press the Shift+Alt+Down shortcut a couple times, you create a block selection that in previous versions would end up selecting the entire three lines since its selection was zero-width (no real characters were selected).  If you then pressed Shift+Alt+Right, it would make a rectangular selection that is three lines tall and one character wide.

At this point you could extend the selection further and then copy it, move to a new location in the document, paste it, and the entire block would be pasted in place there.  This is a very handy editing feature in some scenarios.

Changes to Block Selection

In the next SyntaxEditor releases, we have altered how things work when you have the zero-width block selection.  Again this is the scenario where you start with no selection and press Shift+Alt+Down a couple times.  In the updated code, we now no longer show selection over all the lines and instead, render a thin line that displays where the block selection is.

In the screenshot above, you can see the blue lines that indicate the location of the zero-width block selection.

If we extend the block selection to the right, it become a rectangle that covers the class attributes.  We now can delete that by pressing Del.

Multi-Line Editing

Now let's get onto a demonstration of the new features coming for multi-line editing.

Again, I've created a zero-width block selection and now I'll start typing.

I've typed in the div tag again but I only did it once.  It automatically entered the characters I typed on each line that was part of the zero-width block selection.  That's pretty neat!

Not only does normal character typing work while doing multi-line editing, but Tab (indent), Shift+Tab (outdent), Del (delete next character), Backspace (delete previous character), Shift+Del (delete to next word start), and Shift+Backspace (delete to previous word start) also do.  For instance if I press Backspace to delete the last character I typed, the result is this:

The last character I typed (a >) is now gone in all three lines.

Summary

These sorts for multi-line editing features can really help increase productivity in a number of editing scenarios.  They will be included in the next releases of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinForms controls.  And they will be included in the upcoming WinRT version of SyntaxEditor as well.

The WinRT XAML port of our popular SyntaxEditor syntax-highlighting code editor control is now development complete and we're looking for beta testers to help make sure it's production ready for it's launch after Windows 8.1 is released.

The SyntaxEditor port includes our LL(*) Parser Framework, as well as shows off the advanced premium language add-ons: .NET Languages Add-on (C# and VB), and the Web Languages Add-on (XML and JavaScript).

Note that Visual Studio 2013 RC (or later) and Windows 8.1 are required for this beta.

Please contact us if you would like to assist us by helping to test the control and its add-ons in your Windows 8.1 apps.  In your e-mail to us, give a brief overview of how you intend to use the product.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The WinRT XAML port of our popular SyntaxEditor syntax-highlighting code editor control is nearly development complete! 

While the SyntaxEditor control itself has been used as the foundation of our free Code Writer app for a while now, we haven't had the SyntaxEditor control available to our customers yet to use in their own apps.  That's about to change.  The 2013.2 release of our WinRT XAML controls will include all the recent updates to our Charts and Micro Charts, as well as the new SyntaxEditor port and ports of its .NET Languages Add-on and Web Languages Add-ons.

First Look at a Demo

Let's see a screen of the WinRT version of our SDI Code Editor demo:

Here we have a SyntaxEditor contro showing off the advanced C# language that is part of the .NET Languages Add-on.  With SyntaxEditor you can easily add text and code editing functionality to your Windows 8.1 apps.  It supports custom language creation, and as seen above, has some pre-built languages available with features like automated IntelliPrompt popups.

Beta Testers Wanted

We're really excited to get this finished up and into your hands.  If you are interested in helping us beta test SyntaxEditor for WinRT XAML, please contact our sales team (if you haven't already).  We expect the beta to be ready in the next week or two.

WinRT XAML Controls 2013.1 build 122 have been released and are now available for download.

This maintenance release adds the Charts grouped axis features described in a previous post, that are currently available in the WPF and Silverlight versions.

This screenshot shows how some fruit data has been grouped by color and its results rendered to a bar chart.

See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

The recent 2013.1 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT XAML controls added full-size charts products.

One feature of our new Charts products are axes. Axes allow you to visualize the value range of your chart by labeling values.

Minimum and Maximum Values

Changing axis values such as Minimum and Maximum will determine what data displays on your chart and where. Here is the same data displayed in two charts. In the first, Minimum and Maximum are determined automatically.

In the second one, they are set manually to arbitrary values.

Axis Positioning

We have several capabilities to help you achieve the right look and feel for your application. The first is axis positioning, where you can place axes on either end of the chart.

Tick Intervals

Next is the ability to set the tick intervals. Here, we see two of the same chart. In the first, tick intervals are set to one month.

Grid

You can show major and minor ticks, and our grid feature allows you to extend those ticks behind the chart surface.

Styling Ticks

You can also style ticks to match your application.

Axis Labels

Axes can show labels on each major tick, and also a title. The angle of the labels is adjustable for when you need to put long labels on a small chart.

Summary

These are just a sample of some of the options available. There are a ton more. Download the trial and check it out!