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Introduction

This is a short demo on how to make a textbox act as a hyperlink when the CTRL key is pressed and the control has the focus.

Background

I needed aLinkedTextBox control for a customer.

Using the code

The control has three additional properties:

• CltrHyperLink
• HyperLinkColor
• HyperLinkVisitedColor

A new Event:

• HyperLinkClicked

And a new Virtual method:

• OnHyperLinkClicked

Setting theCtrlHyperLink property totrue activates all the other properties and events.

HyperLinkColor is the color of the hyperlink when it is in the default state.HyperLinkVisitedColor is the color of the hyperlink in its visited state. Listening to theHyperLinkClicked event will result in the event being fired when the user holds down the Control key and clicks the left mouse button.OnHyperLinkClicked can be overridden if needed.

Overridding some of the features of the TextBox

protectedoverridevoid OnKeyUp(KeyEventArgs e){base.OnKeyUp(e);    FormatTextBox(false);//Set the decoration of the textbox to standard}protectedoverridevoid OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e){base.OnKeyDown(e);    FormatTextBox(e.Control);//if true Set the decoration of the textbox//to an hyperlink else standard.}protectedoverridevoid OnMouseClick(MouseEventArgs e){base.OnMouseClick(e);if (_IsHyperLink && e.Button == MouseButtons.Left)//If the the control is in hyperlink mode//and the left mouse button was clicked...    {        OnHyperLinkClicked(new EventArgs());        FormatTextBox(false);    }}privatevoid FormatTextBox(bool ShowAsLink){if (!_CltrHyperLink)return;if (ShowAsLink)    {        Font =new Font(Font, FontStyle.Underline);        ForeColor = (!_HyperLinkVisited ? _HyperLinkColor :                       _HyperLinkVisitedColor);        Cursor = Cursors.Hand;        _IsHyperLink =true;    }else    {        Font =new Font(Font, FontStyle.Regular);        ForeColor = SystemColors.WindowText;        Cursor = Cursors.Default;        _IsHyberLink =false;    }}protectedvirtualvoid OnHyperLinkClicked(EventArgs e){    _HyperLinkVisited =true;if (HyperLinkClicked !=null)        HyperLinkClicked(this, e);}

History

• 7 Sep. 2009 - First release.

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed underThe Code Project Open License (CPOL)