Enabling copy paste feature in a readonly textbox in WPF

Question

I have a WPF textbox where I have set the IsReadonly = True. I want to enable the Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V & Right Click Copy-Paste features for this textbox. Is there any inbuilt functionality within WPF textbox for this?

Ctrl+C and Right Click Copy already works. As for paste - textbox is read only, so how you suppose paste to work? — Evk
– Evk, Commented Oct 7, 2016 at 16:34

Keshan Nageswaran · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-08 02:59:54Z

1

If I understand your question correctly, you want to allow only copy/paste but no other text inputs. Maybe you want to enable the keyboard navigation/selection as well so that the user can navigate around and select some text.

To accomplish that you have to remove the IsReadOnly = True and set the following EventHandler:

<TextBox PreviewKeyDown="TextBox_PreviewKeyDown">

The code behind then looks like this:

private void TextBox_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    switch (e.Key)
    {
        // Enable copy/paste and selection of all text.
        case Key.C:
        case Key.V:
        case Key.A:
            if ((Keyboard.Modifiers & ModifierKeys.Control) == ModifierKeys.Control)
                return;
            break;

        // Enable keyboard navigation/selection.
        case Key.Left:
        case Key.Up:
        case Key.Right:
        case Key.Down:
        case Key.PageUp:
        case Key.PageDown:
        case Key.Home:
        case Key.End:
            return;
    }
    e.Handled = true;
}

To disable the Cut entry in the right click context menu you have to set a custom ContextMenu as well:

<TextBox PreviewKeyDown="TextBox_PreviewKeyDown">
    <TextBox.ContextMenu>
        <ContextMenu>
            <MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Copy" />
            <MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Paste" />
        </ContextMenu>
    </TextBox.ContextMenu>

This should enable the Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and right click copy/paste features but disable all other inputs.

edited Oct 8, 2016 at 2:59

Keshan Nageswaran

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answered Oct 8, 2016 at 2:33

haindl

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1 Comment

Sandeep Over a year ago

This does it! I also added Key.Back and Key.Delete to the case structure.

AnjumSKhan · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-08 11:39:41Z

I haved used custom ContextMenu showing Copy, Paste commands.

I have handled ContextMenuOpening / Closing events to show ContextMenu. If we dont handle these events, ContextMenu will appear but commands would be disabled.

I have handled PreviewKeyDown and KeyDown events for Ctrl+V paste.

I have set CaretBrush to Transparent, otherwise it will appear when we set IsReadOnly = true.

<TextBox PreviewKeyDown="TextBox_PreviewKeyDown_1" KeyDown="TextBox_KeyDown_1" ContextMenuOpening="TextBox_ContextMenuOpening_1" ContextMenuClosing="TextBox_ContextMenuClosing_1" IsReadOnly="True" Text="a" CaretBrush="Transparent" Background="Bisque" Width="277">
    <TextBox.ContextMenu>
        <ContextMenu>
            <MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Copy" />
            <MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Paste" />
        </ContextMenu>
    </TextBox.ContextMenu>
</TextBox>

Handlers :

private void TextBox_ContextMenuOpening_1(object sender, ContextMenuEventArgs e)
{
    (sender as TextBox).IsReadOnly = false;
}

private void TextBox_ContextMenuClosing_1(object sender, ContextMenuEventArgs e)
{
    (sender as TextBox).IsReadOnly = true;
}   

private void TextBox_PreviewKeyDown_1(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.V && Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.LeftCtrl) || Keyboard.IsKeyDown(Key.RightCtrl))
    {
        (sender as TextBox).IsReadOnly = false;
    }
}

private void TextBox_KeyDown_1(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    (sender as TextBox).IsReadOnly = true;
}

Please tell if this solves your issue at hand.

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