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# QTextEdit Class Reference

The QTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display both plain and rich text. More...

    #include <QTextEdit>

Inherits QViewport.

Inherited by QTextBrowser.

- List of all members, including inherited members
- Compatibility members

### Public Types

- typedef AutoFormatting
- enum AutoFormattingFlag { AutoNone, AutoBulletList, AutoAll }
- enum CursorAction { MoveBackward, MoveForward, MoveWordBackward, MoveWordForward, MoveUp, ..., MovePageDown }
- enum WordWrap { NoWrap, WidgetWidth, FixedPixelWidth, FixedColumnWidth }

### Writable Properties

autoFormatting : AutoFormattingFlag readOnly : bool tabChangesFocus : bool | undoRedoEnabled : bool wordWrap : WordWrap wrapColumnOrWidth : int

- 2 writable properties inherited from QViewport
- 5 writable properties inherited from QFrame
- 33 writable properties inherited from QWidget
- 1 writable property inherited from QObject

### Read-Only Properties

- documentTitle : QString

- 1 read-only property inherited from QViewport
- 1 read-only property inherited from QFrame
- 24 read-only properties inherited from QWidget

### Public Functions

- QTextEdit ( QWidget * parent = 0 )
- QTextEdit ( const QString & text, QWidget * parent = 0 )
- virtual ~QTextEdit ()
- Qt::Alignment alignment () const
- void append ( const QString & text )
- QTextCharFormat currentCharFormat () const
- QFont currentFont () const
- QTextDocument * document () const
- void ensureCursorVisible ()
- bool find ( const QString & exp, QTextDocument::FindFlags options )
- QString fontFamily () const
- bool fontItalic () const
- float fontPointSize () const
- bool fontUnderline () const
- int fontWeight () const
- virtual int heightForWidth ( int width ) const
- void mergeCurrentCharFormat ( const QTextCharFormat & modifier )
- QString plainText () const
- void setCurrentCharFormat ( const QTextCharFormat & format )
- void setDocument ( QTextDocument * document )
- void setTextCursor ( const QTextCursor & cursor )
- QColor textColor () const
- QTextCursor textCursor () const

- 4 public functions inherited from QViewport
- 2 public functions inherited from QFrame
- 83 public functions inherited from QWidget
- 24 public functions inherited from QObject
- 2 public functions inherited from QPaintDevice

### Public Slots

- void clear ()
- void copy ()
- void cut ()
- void insertHtml ( const QString & text )
- void insertPlainText ( const QString & text )
- void paste ()
- void scrollToAnchor ( const QString & name )
- void selectAll ()
- void setAlignment ( Qt::Alignment a )
- void setCurrentFont ( const QFont & f )
- void setFontFamily ( const QString & fontFamily )
- void setFontItalic ( bool b )
- void setFontPointSize ( float s )
- void setFontUnderline ( bool b )
- void setFontWeight ( int w )
- void setHtml ( const QString & text )
- void setHtml ( const QByteArray & text )
- void setPlainText ( const QString & text )
- void setTextColor ( const QColor & c )
- void zoomIn ( int range = 1 )
- void zoomOut ( int range = 1 )

- 16 public slots inherited from QWidget
- 1 public slot inherited from QObject

### Signals

- void copyAvailable ( bool yes )
- void currentCharFormatChanged ( const QTextCharFormat & f )
- void selectionChanged ()

- 1 signal inherited from QObject

### Static Public Members

- 4 static public members inherited from QWidget
- 4 static public members inherited from QObject

### Protected Functions

- virtual QMenu * createPopupMenu ( const QPoint & pos )

- 17 protected functions inherited from QViewport
- 44 protected functions inherited from QWidget
- 9 protected functions inherited from QObject

## Detailed Description

The QTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display both plain and rich text.

- Introduction and Concepts
- Using QTextEdit as a Display Widget

- Read-only key bindings

- Using QTextEdit as an Editor

- Editing key bindings

### Introduction and Concepts

QTextEdit is an advanced WYSIWYG viewer/editor supporting rich text formatting using HTML-style tags. It is optimized to handle large documents and to respond quickly to user input.

QTextEdit works on paragraphs and characters. A paragraph is a formatted string which is word-wrapped to fit into the width of the widget. By default when reading plain text, one newline signifies a paragraph. A document consists of zero or more paragraphs. The words in the paragraph are aligned in accordance with the paragraph's alignment. Paragraphs are separated by hard line breaks. Each character within a paragraph has its own attributes, for example, font and color.

QTextEdit can display images, lists and tables. If the text is too large to view within the text edit's viewport, scrollbars will appear. The text edit can load both plain text and HTML files (a subset of HTML 3.2 and 4).

If you just need to display a small piece of rich text use QLabel.

Note that we do not intend to add a full-featured web browser widget to Qt (because that would easily double Qt's size and only a few applications would benefit from it). The rich text support in Qt is designed to provide a fast, portable and efficient way to add reasonable online help facilities to applications, and to provide a basis for rich text editors.

### Using QTextEdit as a Display Widget

QTextEdit can display a large HTML subset, including tables and images.

The text is set or replaced using setHtml() which deletes any existing text and replaces it with the text passed in the setHtml() call. If you call setHtml() with legacy HTML, and then call text(), the text that is returned may have different markup, but will render the same. The entire text can be deleted with clear().

Text itself can be inserted using the QTextCursor class or using the convenience functions insertHtml(), insertPlainText(), append() or paste(). QTextCursor is also able to insert complex objects like tables or lists into the document, and it deals with creating selections and applying changes to selected text.

By default the text edit wraps words at whitespace to fit within the text edit widget. The setWordWrap() function is used to specify the kind of word wrap you want, or `NoWrap` if you don't want any wrapping. Call setWordWrap() to set a fixed pixel width `FixedPixelWidth`, or character column (e.g. 80 column) `FixedColumnWidth` with the pixels or columns specified with setWrapColumnOrWidth(). If you use word wrap to the widget's width `WidgetWidth`, you can specify whether to break on whitespace or anywhere with setWrapPolicy().

The find() function can be used to find and select a given string within the text.

#### Read-only key bindings

When QTextEdit is used read-only the key-bindings are limited to navigation, and text may only be selected with the mouse:

Keypresses | Action
--- | ---
Qt::UpArrow | Move one line up
Qt::DownArrow | Move one line down
Qt::LeftArrow | Move one character left
Qt::RightArrow | Move one character right
PageUp | Move one (viewport) page up
PageDown | Move one (viewport) page down
Home | Move to the beginning of the text
End | Move to the end of the text
Shift+Wheel | Scroll the page horizontally (the Wheel is the mouse wheel)
Ctrl+Wheel | Zoom the text

The text edit may be able to provide some meta-information. For example, the documentTitle() function will return the text from within HTML `<title>` tags.

### Using QTextEdit as an Editor

All the information about using QTextEdit as a display widget also applies here.

The current char format's attributes are set with setFontItalic(), setFontBold(), setFontUnderline(), setFontFamily(), setFontPointSize(), setTextColor() and setCurrentFont(). The current paragraph's alignment is set with setAlignment().

Selection of text is handled by the QTextCursor class, which provides functionality for creating selections, retrieving the text contents or deleting selections. You can retrieve the object that corresponds with the user-visible cursor using the textCursor() method. If you want to set a selection in QTextEdit just create one on a QTextCursor object and then make that cursor the visible cursor using setCursor(). The selection can be copied to the clipboard with copy(), or cut to the clipboard with cut(). The entire text can be selected using selectAll().

When the cursor is moved, the currentCharFormatChanged() signal is emitted to reflect the new formatting attributes at the new cursor position.

QTextEdit holds a QTextDocument object which can be retrieved using the document() method. You can also set your own document object using setDocument(). QTextDocument emits a textChanged() signal if the text changes and it also provides a isModified() function which will return true if the text has been modified since it was either loaded or since the last call to setModified with false as argument. In addition it provides methods for undo and redo.

#### Editing key bindings

The list of key-bindings which are implemented for editing:

Keypresses | Action
--- | ---
Backspace | Delete the character to the left of the cursor
Delete | Delete the character to the right of the cursor
Ctrl+A | Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
Ctrl+B | Move the cursor one character left
Ctrl+C | Copy the marked text to the clipboard (also Ctrl+Insert under Windows)
Ctrl+D | Delete the character to the right of the cursor
Ctrl+E | Move the cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+F | Move the cursor one character right
Ctrl+H | Delete the character to the left of the cursor
Ctrl+K | Delete to end of line
Ctrl+N | Move the cursor one line down
Ctrl+P | Move the cursor one line up
Ctrl+V | Paste the clipboard text into line edit (also Shift+Insert under Windows)
Ctrl+X | Cut the marked text, copy to clipboard (also Shift+Delete under Windows)
Ctrl+Z | Undo the last operation
Ctrl+Y | Redo the last operation
Qt::LeftArrow | Move the cursor one character left
Ctrl+Qt::LeftArrow | Move the cursor one word left
Qt::RightArrow | Move the cursor one character right
Ctrl+Qt::RightArrow | Move the cursor one word right
Qt::UpArrow | Move the cursor one line up
Ctrl+Qt::UpArrow | Move the cursor one word up
Qt::DownArrow | Move the cursor one line down
Ctrl+Down Arrow | Move the cursor one word down
PageUp | Move the cursor one page up
PageDown | Move the cursor one page down
Home | Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
Ctrl+Home | Move the cursor to the beginning of the text
End | Move the cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+End | Move the cursor to the end of the text
Shift+Wheel | Scroll the page horizontally (the Wheel is the mouse wheel)
Ctrl+Wheel | Zoom the text

To select (mark) text hold down the Shift key whilst pressing one of the movement keystrokes, for example, Shift+Right Arrow will select the character to the right, and Shift+Ctrl+Right Arrow will select the word to the right, etc.

See also QTextDocument, QTextCursor, document(), textCursor(), setDocument(), and setTextCursor().

## Member Type Documentation

### enum QTextEdit::AutoFormattingFlag
typedef QTextEdit::AutoFormatting

`QTextEdit::AutoNone` | Don't do any automatic formatting.
`QTextEdit::AutoBulletList` | Automatically create bullet lists (e.g. when the user enters an asterisk ('*') in the left most column, or presses Enter in an existing list item.
`QTextEdit::AutoAll` | Apply all automatic formatting. Currently only automatic bullet lists are supported.

The AutoFormatting typedef can store a combination of AutoFormattingFlag values.

### enum QTextEdit::CursorAction

`QTextEdit::MoveBackward` |
`QTextEdit::MoveForward` |
`QTextEdit::MoveWordBackward` |
`QTextEdit::MoveWordForward` |
`QTextEdit::MoveUp` |
`QTextEdit::MoveDown` |
`QTextEdit::MoveLineStart` |
`QTextEdit::MoveLineEnd` |
`QTextEdit::MoveHome` |
`QTextEdit::MoveEnd` |
`QTextEdit::MovePageUp` |
`QTextEdit::MovePageDown` |

### enum QTextEdit::WordWrap

`QTextEdit::NoWrap` |
`QTextEdit::WidgetWidth` |
`QTextEdit::FixedPixelWidth` |
`QTextEdit::FixedColumnWidth` |

## Property Documentation

### autoFormatting : AutoFormattingFlag

This property holds the enabled set of auto formatting features.

The value can be any combination of the values in the `AutoFormattingFlag` enum. The default is `AutoAll`. Choose `AutoNone` to disable all automatic formatting.

Currently, the only automatic formatting feature provided is `AutoBulletList`; future versions of Qt may offer more.

Access functions:

- AutoFormatting autoFormatting () const
- void setAutoFormatting ( AutoFormatting features )

### documentTitle : QString

This property holds the title of the document parsed from the text.

Access functions:

- QString documentTitle () const

### readOnly : bool

This property holds whether the text edit is read-only.

In a read-only text edit the user can only navigate through the text and select text; modifying the text is not possible.

This property's default is false.

Access functions:

- bool isReadOnly () const
- void setReadOnly ( bool ro )

### tabChangesFocus : bool

This property holds whether TAB changes focus or is accepted as input.

In some occasions text edits should not allow the user to input tabulators or change indentation using the TAB key, as this breaks the focus chain. The default is false.

Access functions:

- bool tabChangesFocus () const
- void setTabChangesFocus ( bool b )

### undoRedoEnabled : bool

This property holds whether undo and redo are enabled.

Users are only able to undo or redo actions if this property is true, and if there is an action that can be undone (or redone).

Access functions:

- bool isUndoRedoEnabled () const
- void setUndoRedoEnabled ( bool enable )

### wordWrap : WordWrap

This property holds the word wrap mode.

The default mode is `WidgetWidth` which causes words to be wrapped at the right edge of the text edit. Wrapping occurs at whitespace, keeping whole words intact. If you want wrapping to occur within words use setWrapPolicy(). If you set a wrap mode of `FixedPixelWidth` or `FixedColumnWidth` you should also call setWrapColumnOrWidth() with the width you want.

Access functions:

- WordWrap wordWrap () const
- void setWordWrap ( WordWrap wrap )

See also WordWrap, wrapColumnOrWidth, and wrapPolicy.

### wrapColumnOrWidth : int

This property holds the position (in pixels or columns depending on the wrap mode) where text will be wrapped.

If the wrap mode is `FixedPixelWidth`, the value is the number of pixels from the left edge of the text edit at which text should be wrapped. If the wrap mode is `FixedColumnWidth`, the value is the column number (in character columns) from the left edge of the text edit at which text should be wrapped.

Access functions:

- int wrapColumnOrWidth () const
- void setWrapColumnOrWidth ( int w )

See also wordWrap.

## Member Function Documentation

### QTextEdit::QTextEdit ( QWidget * parent = 0 )

Constructs an empty QTextEdit with parent parent.

### QTextEdit::QTextEdit ( const QString & text, QWidget * parent = 0 )

Constructs a QTextEdit with parent parent. The text edit will display the text text. The text is interpreted as html.

### QTextEdit::~QTextEdit () `[virtual]`

Destructor.

### Qt::Alignment QTextEdit::alignment () const

Returns the alignment of the current paragraph.

See also setAlignment().

### void QTextEdit::append ( const QString & text )

Appends a new paragraph with text to the end of the text edit.

### void QTextEdit::clear () `[slot]`

Deletes all the text in the text edit.

See also cut(), removeSelectedText(), setPlainText(), and setHtml().

### void QTextEdit::copy () `[slot]`

Copies any selected text to the clipboard.

See also copyAvailable().

### void QTextEdit::copyAvailable ( bool yes ) `[signal]`

This signal is emitted when text is selected or de-selected in the text edit.

When text is selected this signal will be emitted with yes set to true. If no text has been selected or if the selected text is de-selected this signal is emitted with yes set to false.

If yes is true then copy() can be used to copy the selection to the clipboard. If yes is false then copy() does nothing.

See also selectionChanged().

### QMenu * QTextEdit::createPopupMenu ( const QPoint & pos ) `[virtual protected]`

This function is called to create a right mouse button popup menu at the document position pos. If you want to create a custom popup menu, reimplement this function and return the created popup menu. Ownership of the popup menu is transferred to the caller.

### QTextCharFormat QTextEdit::currentCharFormat () const

Returns the char format that is used when inserting new text.

### void QTextEdit::currentCharFormatChanged ( const QTextCharFormat & f ) `[signal]`

This signal is emitted if the current character format has changed, for example caused by a change of the cursor position.

The new format is f.

See also setCurrentCharFormat().

### QFont QTextEdit::currentFont () const

Returns the font of the current format.

See also setCurrentFont(), setFontFamily(), and setFontPointSize().

### void QTextEdit::cut () `[slot]`

Copies the selected text to the clipboard and deletes it from the text edit.

If there is no selected text nothing happens.

See also copy() and paste().

### QTextDocument * QTextEdit::document () const

Returns a pointer to the underlying document.

See also setDocument().

### void QTextEdit::ensureCursorVisible ()

Ensures that the cursor is visible by scrolling the text edit if necessary.

### bool QTextEdit::find ( const QString & exp, QTextDocument::FindFlags options )

Finds the next occurrence of the string, exp, using the given options. Returns true if exp was found and changes the cursor to select the match; otherwise returns false;

### QString QTextEdit::fontFamily () const

Returns the font family of the current format.

See also setFontFamily(), setCurrentFont(), and setFontPointSize().

### bool QTextEdit::fontItalic () const

Returns true if the font of the current format is italic; otherwise returns false.

See also setFontItalic().

### float QTextEdit::fontPointSize () const

Returns the point size of the font of the current format.

See also setFontFamily(), setCurrentFont(), and setFontPointSize().

### bool QTextEdit::fontUnderline () const

Returns true if the font of the current format is underlined; otherwise returns false.

See also setFontUnderline().

### int QTextEdit::fontWeight () const

Returns the font weight of the current format.

See also setFontWeight(), setCurrentFont(), and setFontPointSize().

### int QTextEdit::heightForWidth ( int width ) const `[virtual]`

Returns how many pixels high the text edit needs to be to display all the text if the text edit is width pixels wide.

Reimplemented from QWidget.

### void QTextEdit::insertHtml ( const QString & text ) `[slot]`

Convenience slot that inserts text which is assumed to be of html formatting at the current cursor position.

It is equivalent to:

        QTextDocumentFragment fragment = QTextDocumentFragment::fromHTML(text);
        edit->textCursor().insertFragment(fragment);

### void QTextEdit::insertPlainText ( const QString & text ) `[slot]`

Convenience slot that inserts text at the current cursor position.

It is equivalent to

        edit->textCursor().insertText(text);

### void QTextEdit::mergeCurrentCharFormat ( const QTextCharFormat & modifier )

If the editor has a selection then the properties of modifier are applied to the selection. In addition they are merged into the current char format.

See also QTextCursor::mergeCharFormat.

### void QTextEdit::paste () `[slot]`

Pastes the text from the clipboard into the text edit at the current cursor position.

If there is no text in the clipboard nothing happens.

See also cut() and copy().

### QString QTextEdit::plainText () const

Returns the text of the text edit as plain text.

See also setPlainText.

### void QTextEdit::scrollToAnchor ( const QString & name ) `[slot]`

Scrolls the text edit so that the anchor with the given name is visible; does nothing if the name is empty, or is already visible, or isn't found.

### void QTextEdit::selectAll () `[slot]`

Selects all text.

See also copy(), cut(), and textCursor().

### void QTextEdit::selectionChanged () `[signal]`

This signal is emitted whenever the selection changes.

See also copyAvailable().

### void QTextEdit::setAlignment ( Qt::Alignment a ) `[slot]`

Sets the alignment of the current paragraph to a. Valid alignments are `Qt::AlignLeft`, `Qt::AlignRight`, `Qt::AlignJustify` and `Qt::AlignCenter` (which centers horizontally).

### void QTextEdit::setCurrentCharFormat ( const QTextCharFormat & format )

Sets the char format that is be used when inserting new text to format .

### void QTextEdit::setCurrentFont ( const QFont & f ) `[slot]`

Sets the font of the current format to f.

See also currentFont(), setFontPointSize(), and setFontFamily().

### void QTextEdit::setDocument ( QTextDocument * document )

Makes document the new document of the text editor.

The parent QObject of the provided document remains the owner of the object. If the current document is a child of the text editor, then it is deleted.

See also document().

### void QTextEdit::setFontFamily ( const QString & fontFamily ) `[slot]`

Sets the font family of the current format to fontFamily.

See also fontFamily() and setCurrentFont().

### void QTextEdit::setFontItalic ( bool b ) `[slot]`

If b is true sets the current format to italic; otherwise sets the current format to non-italic.

See also fontItalic().

### void QTextEdit::setFontPointSize ( float s ) `[slot]`

Sets the point size of the current format to s.

Note that if s is zero or negative, the behavior of this function is not defined.

See also fontPointSize(), setCurrentFont(), and setFontFamily().

### void QTextEdit::setFontUnderline ( bool b ) `[slot]`

If b is true sets the current format to underline; otherwise sets the current format to non-underline.

See also fontUnderline().

### void QTextEdit::setFontWeight ( int w ) `[slot]`

Sets the font weight of the current format to w.

See also fontWeight(), setCurrentFont(), and setFontFamily().

### void QTextEdit::setHtml ( const QString & text ) `[slot]`

Changes the text of the text edit to the string text. Any previous text is removed.

text is interpreted as rich text in html format.

Note that the undo/redo history is cleared by this function.

### void QTextEdit::setHtml ( const QByteArray & text ) `[slot]`

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Changes the text of the text edit to the string text. Any previous text is removed.

text is interpreted as rich text in html format. Any encoding attribute specified in the header of the html is obeyed.

Note that the undo/redo history is cleared by this function.

### void QTextEdit::setPlainText ( const QString & text ) `[slot]`

Changes the text of the text edit to the string text. Any previous text is removed.

text is interpreted as plain text.

Note that the undo/redo history is cleared by this function.

See also plainText().

### void QTextEdit::setTextColor ( const QColor & c ) `[slot]`

Sets the text color of the current format to c.

See also textColor().

### void QTextEdit::setTextCursor ( const QTextCursor & cursor )

Sets the visible cursor.

### QColor QTextEdit::textColor () const

Returns the text color of the current format.

See also setTextColor().

### QTextCursor QTextEdit::textCursor () const

Returns a QTextCursor that represents the currently visible cursor.

### void QTextEdit::zoomIn ( int range = 1 ) `[slot]`

Zooms in on the text by by making the base font size range points larger and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

See also zoomOut().

### void QTextEdit::zoomOut ( int range = 1 ) `[slot]`

Zooms out on the text by making the base font size range points smaller and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

See also zoomIn().