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Bug Report T993371
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Import from RTF - RichEditControl does not correctly display specific characters when the "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" Windows option is enabled

created 4 years ago

Dear DevExpress Support

We have a code in our application which is converting a plain text into RTF using an instance of RichTextBox (System.Windows.Forms). Then, this code appends this RTF text to the content of a RichEditControl. A small prototype illustrating this behavior is attached with this ticket.

This code is working fine until we activate the following option in the Windows regional settings (Settings > Date & time > Date, time & regional formatting > Additional date, time & regional settings > Region > Administrative > Change system locale…)
Clipboard-File-1.png

With this setting activated, the code of the attached prototype will crash when trying to append the RTF text (see attached error log).

Apparently, the RichTextBox control is producing a different RTF if this setting is checked.

With setting checked (error):

Code
{\urtf1\ansi\ansicpg65001\deff0\deflang4108{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Microsoft Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs17 Some more text...\par
}

With setting unchecked (no error):

Code
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang4108{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Microsoft Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs17 Some more text...\par
}

=> Do you have more information about this Windows setting and its influence on your RichEditControl?
=> Is there a way to configure the RichEditControl in order to support this other RTF format?

Thanks and best regards
Matthieu

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Answers approved by DevExpress Support

created 4 years ago

Hello,
The standard RichTextBox produces an invalid RTF string when the "Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" option is turned on. A valid RTF should start with the "\rtf1" tag. However, when the option is enabled, RichTextBox returns a string that starts with "\urtf1". Thus, RichEditControl determines this RTF string as invalid and doesn't load any content.
I checked other tools and they interpret that string as invalid too. For example, you may create a new RichTextBox instance and assign this RTF string to RichTextBox.Rtf property - it will throw an exception.

C#
var rtb = new RichTextBox {Text = plainText};
var rtb2 = new RichTextBox { Rtf = rtb.Rtf };

Or you may write the generated RTF in a file and attempt to open this file using Microsoft Word - it will open the file as plain text since it couldn't parse the RTF string.

C#
var rtb = new RichTextBox {Text = plainText};
File.WriteAllText("test.rtf", rtb.Rtf);
Process.Start("test.rtf");

Please note that if you want to convert a plain text string to RTF without displaying any control in the window, you can use our non-visual Word Processing Document API library (the RichEditDocumentServer class) instead of the RichTextBox component. It produces a valid RTF output when the "Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" option is turned on.

C#
var plainText = "Some more text...";
var rtb = new RichEditDocumentServer() { Text = plainText };
string rtf = rtb.RtfText;

Should you have additional questions, please let me know.

    Show previous comments (2)
    DevExpress Support Team 4 years ago

      Hi,

      We examined the issue and see that it is related to the RichTextBox. If you save its Rtf value to a file and open it in Microsoft Word, you will see that Word displays this text incorrectly (see the attached document). I used the following code:

      C#
      var plainText = "Fichier d'échange";
var rtb = new RichTextBox {Text = plainText};
File.WriteAllText("output.rtf", rtb.Rtf);

      This is a RichTextBox limitation, and we cannot overcome it at the level of our components. Please consider migrating to the RichEditDocumentServer to process documents in code.

      DM DM
      DUC Matthieu 4 years ago

        Hi Ingvar

        Indeed, the RTF is also wrong in Word. But it's somehow correctly displayed by Wordpad…
        Clipboard-File-1.png

        Using RichEditDocumentServer is indeed a solution. Unfortunately, it will requires a lot of refactoring for us.
        Or simply unchecking this option, if it's not really required.

        DevExpress Support Team 4 years ago

          Hi,

          WordPad is very close to RichTextBox in its RTF editing capabilities. Perhaps, they use the same core and, as a result, display this RTF similarly. I understand that migrating to RichEditDocumentServer requires additional effort, but this is the most optimal solution. Disabling the mentioned flag is also an option, but your customers will need to disable it as well to make your application work as expected.

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