Highlight (select) text in RichTextBox without affecting current .SelectionBackColor or .SelectionColor

Question

I wish to be able to Highlight (select) text in a RichTextBox without affecting the current .SelectionBackColor or .SelectionColor

I have a RichTextBox containing a lot of text.

I have a ListView containing a list of strings/words which have different .BackColor and .ForeColor in the ListView.

I loop through the ListView items and highlight corresponding text in the RichTextBox using .SelectionBackColor and .SelectionColor setting the text color to match the .BackColor and .ForeColor from the ListView.

For Each verItem As ListViewItem In lvVer.Items
    startindex = 0

    While startindex < rtbMain.TextLength
        Dim wordStartIndex As Integer = rtbMain.Find(verItem.Text, startindex, RichTextBoxFinds.None)

        If wordStartIndex <> -1 Then
            rtbMain.SelectionStart = wordStartIndex
            rtbMain.SelectionLength = verItem.Text.Length
            rtbMain.SelectionBackColor = verItem.BackColor
            rtbMain.SelectionColor = verItem.ForeColor
        Else
            Exit While
        End If

        startindex += wordStartIndex + verItem.Text.Length

    End While
Next

This all works perfectly, but I want to be able to select an item in the listview and then highlight the matching text object in the RichTextBox with the standard highlight (blue background, white text) colors whilst still retaining my original colors underneath.

If I use the mouse to highlight text in the RichTextBox, it gets highlighted temporarily in the usual windows fashion (blue background, white text). If I then click the mouse somewhere else in the RichTextBox, the original color I set on the string is still there. I want to replicate this behaviour in code.

If 'select' the text via code rtbMain.Select(wordStartIndex, verItem.Text.Length), it does not get highlighted. It doesn't even appear to be selected visually either. Obviously I can set a new .SelectionBackColor and .SelectionColor but then I will lose my original colors.

Is there a way to scroll the mouse over the RichTextBox text programatically and have the text selected and highlighted without affecting the underlying original colors?

GoodJuJu GoodJuJu · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-09T12:14:23

I found the answer which although very simple, was not obvious.

I had to set the RichTextBox HideSelection property to False. I know this is obvious when you know that property exists, however, even when it is set to false, when I double click a word, or scroll the mouse over it, the selection is visible??!? It just wasn't visible when I was doing it in code.

Highlight (select) text in RichTextBox without affecting current .SelectionBackColor or .SelectionColor

1 Answers