Enable copy, cut, past window in a rich text box

Question

I have a rich text box(richTextBox1) in my program as shown bellow. But when I right click on it, it doesn\'t pop up a “copy, cut, past” window. Can you please tell

Answer 1

In case that you need to add standard context menu to multiple RichTextBox instances then it may be better to create custom extended component inherited from RichTextBox. New component can be added from Solution Explorer project context menu Add -> New Item... -> Custom Control.

You can also define handler for context menu opening to check if any text is selected, clipboard is not empty and if the control is not set as read only.

It is also good to support other useful standard actions like Undo, Redo, Delete, and Select All.

namespace Common
{
    public partial class RichTextBoxEx : RichTextBox
    {
        public RichTextBoxEx()
        {
            AddContextMenu();
        }

        public void AddContextMenu()
        {
            ContextMenuStrip cms = new ContextMenuStrip { ShowImageMargin = false };

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiUndo = new ToolStripMenuItem("Undo");
            tsmiUndo.Click += (sender, e) => { if (CanUndo) Undo(); };
            tsmiUndo.ShortcutKeys = Keys.Z | Keys.Control;
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiUndo);

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiRedo = new ToolStripMenuItem("Redo");
            tsmiRedo.Click += (sender, e) => { if (CanRedo) Redo(); };
            tsmiRedo.ShortcutKeys = Keys.Y | Keys.Control;
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiRedo);

            cms.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiCut = new ToolStripMenuItem("Cut");
            tsmiCut.Click += (sender, e) => Cut();
            tsmiCut.ShortcutKeys = Keys.X | Keys.Control;
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiCut);

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiCopy = new ToolStripMenuItem("Copy");
            tsmiCopy.Click += (sender, e) => Copy();
            tsmiCopy.ShortcutKeys = Keys.C | Keys.Control;
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiCopy);

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiPaste = new ToolStripMenuItem("Paste");
            tsmiPaste.Click += (sender, e) => Paste();
            tsmiPaste.ShortcutKeys = Keys.V | Keys.Control;                
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiPaste);

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiDelete = new ToolStripMenuItem("Delete");
            tsmiDelete.Click += (sender, e) => { SelectedText = ""; };                                
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiDelete);

            cms.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());

            ToolStripMenuItem tsmiSelectAll = new ToolStripMenuItem("Select All");
            tsmiSelectAll.Click += (sender, e) => { SelectionStart = 0; SelectionLength = Text.Length; };
            tsmiSelectAll.ShortcutKeys = Keys.A | Keys.Control;
            cms.Items.Add(tsmiSelectAll);

            cms.Opening += delegate (object sender, CancelEventArgs e) 
            {
                tsmiUndo.Enabled = CanUndo && !this.ReadOnly;
                tsmiRedo.Enabled = CanRedo && !this.ReadOnly;
                tsmiCut.Enabled = (SelectionLength != 0) && !this.ReadOnly;
                tsmiCopy.Enabled = SelectionLength != 0;
                tsmiPaste.Enabled = Clipboard.ContainsText() && !this.ReadOnly;
                tsmiDelete.Enabled = (SelectionLength != 0) && !this.ReadOnly;
                tsmiSelectAll.Enabled = (TextLength > 0) && (SelectionLength < TextLength);
            };

            ContextMenuStrip = cms;
        }
    }
}