Create customize notepad in Visual Basic.Net

In this tutorial shows how to create simple and customized notepad based on Visual Basic.Net language. Obviously, through Visual Basic we can make various applications quickly in an hour or even minutes. In addition, these program quite the same as usual notepad in our windows, but I make a little bit customization in my designed and source code. Some source codes applied in this simple notepad are gathered in different websites on the internet and add additional features so that it looks like something different. Added features such as counting the number of characters and words, recognize HTML, and color. Unfortunately, it’s not really the same as notepad where all functions are here, this is actually a simple notepad as what I had intended to work with and not necessarily exactly identical as notepad. However, if you want to contribute additional features, your comments plus source code if they have are welcome.

Now, to work with our notepad we need different controls can be drag on our Windows Form Application. Here are:

MenuStrip, ColorDialog, FontDialog, OpenFileDialog, SaveFileDialog, PrintDialog, PrintDocument, PrintPreviewDialog, StatusStrip, and ContextMenuStrip.

Note: When you drag StatusStrip don’t forget to add 2 Status label for counting words and character and Contextual menu, once you add menu items such as cut, copy, paste, etc..., click textbox, and on your properties window, locate contextmenustrip and select the value name MenuStrip1.

Your Form looks like the following: 

Final Output:

Source code for each menu:

New

 Dim Save As New SaveFileDialog()

        Dim myStreamWriter As System.IO.StreamWriter

        'Check if there's text added to the textbox

        If txtTextPad.Modified Then

            'If the text of notepad changed, the program will ask the user if they want to save the changes

            Dim ask As MsgBoxResult

            ask = MsgBox("Do you want to save the changes", MsgBoxStyle.YesNoCancel, "New Document")

            If ask = MsgBoxResult.No Then

                txtTextPad.Clear()

            ElseIf ask = MsgBoxResult.Cancel Then

            ElseIf ask = MsgBoxResult.Yes Then

                Save.Filter = "Text [*.txt*]|*.txt|All Files [*.*]|*.*"

                Save.CheckPathExists = True

                Save.Title = "Save File"

                Save.ShowDialog(Me)

                Try

                    myStreamWriter = System.IO.File.AppendText(Save.FileName)

                    myStreamWriter.Write(txtTextPad.Text)

                    myStreamWriter.Flush()

                Catch ex As Exception

                End Try

                txtTextPad.Clear()

            End If

            'If textbox's text is still the same, notepad will open a new page:

        Else

            txtTextPad.Clear()

        End If

Open

 Dim Save As New SaveFileDialog()

        Dim myStreamWriter As System.IO.StreamWriter

        If txtTextPad.Modified Then

            'If the text of notepad changed, the program will ask the user if they want to save the changes

            Dim ask As MsgBoxResult

            ask = MsgBox("Do you want to save the changes", MsgBoxStyle.YesNoCancel, "Open Document")

            If ask = MsgBoxResult.No Then

                OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog()

                Try

                    txtTextPad.Text = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)

                Catch ex As Exception

                End Try

            ElseIf ask = MsgBoxResult.Cancel Then

            ElseIf ask = MsgBoxResult.Yes Then

                Save.Filter = "Text [*.txt*]|*.txt|All Files [*.*]|*.*"

                Save.CheckPathExists = True

                Save.Title = "Save File"

                Save.ShowDialog(Me)

                Try

                    myStreamWriter = System.IO.File.AppendText(Save.FileName)

                    myStreamWriter.Write(txtTextPad.Text)

                    myStreamWriter.Flush()

                Catch ex As Exception

                End Try

            End If

        Else

            'If textbox's text is still the same, notepad will show the OpenFileDialog

            OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog()

            txtTextPad.Text = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)

        End If

Save

 Dim Save As New SaveFileDialog()

        Dim myStreamWriter As System.IO.StreamWriter

        Save.Filter = "Text [*.txt*]|*.txt|All Files [*.*]|*.*"

        Save.CheckPathExists = True

        Save.Title = "Save File"

        Save.ShowDialog(Me)

        Try

            myStreamWriter = System.IO.File.AppendText(Save.FileName)

            myStreamWriter.Write(txtTextPad.Text)

            myStreamWriter.Flush()

        Catch ex As Exception

        End Try

Save As

SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog()

        ' the application will check if the file is already exists, if exists, it will ask the user if they want to replace it

        If My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists(SaveFileDialog1.FileName) Then

            Dim ask As MsgBoxResult

            ask = MsgBox("File already exists, would you like to replace it?", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo, "File Exists")

            'if the user decides not to replace the existing file

            If ask = MsgBoxResult.No Then

                SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog()

                'if the user decides to replace the existing file

            ElseIf ask = MsgBoxResult.Yes Then

                My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(SaveFileDialog1.FileName, txtTextPad.Text, False)

            End If

            'if the file doesn't exist

        Else

            My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(SaveFileDialog1.FileName, txtTextPad.Text, False)

        End If

Print Preview

        If txtTextPad.Text = "" Then

            MessageBox.Show("Empty is not allowed print out")

        Else

            PrintPreviewDialog1.Document = PrintDocument1

            PrintPreviewDialog1.ShowDialog()

        End If

Print

        If PrintDialog1.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then

            PrintDocument1.Print()

        End If

Exit

If MessageBox.Show("Are you really want to exit to close the program?", "Closed", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Question) = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Yes Then

            Me.Close()

        End If

Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Select All, and Date and Time

Private Sub UndoToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles UndoToolStripMenuItem.Click

        txtTextPad.Undo()

    End Sub

    Private Sub CopyToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles CopyToolStripMenuItem.Click

        txtTextPad.Cut()

    End Sub

    Private Sub PasteToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles PasteToolStripMenuItem.Click

        txtTextPad.Copy()

    End Sub

    Private Sub PasteToolStripMenuItem1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles PasteToolStripMenuItem1.Click

        txtTextPad.Paste()

    End Sub

    Private Sub SelectToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles SelectToolStripMenuItem.Click

        txtTextPad.SelectAll()

    End Sub

    Private Sub RedoToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles RedoToolStripMenuItem.Click

        txtTextPad.redo()

    End Sub

    Private Sub TimeAndDateToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles TimeAndDateToolStripMenuItem.Click

        Dim h As String = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Hour

        Dim m As String = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Minute

        Dim d As String = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Date

        If m < 10 Then m = "0" + m

        If h > 12 Then h = h - 12

        Dim time As String = h + ":" + m

        If h > 12 Then time = time + "AM"

        If h < 12 Then time = time + "PM"

        txtTextPad.Text = txtTextPad.Text + " " + time + ", " + d

    End Sub

Font

FontDialog1.Font = txtTextPad.Font

        FontDialog1.ShowDialog()

        txtTextPad.Font = FontDialog1.Font

Color

 Dim colorDialog As New ColorDialog

        Try

            colorDialog.ShowDialog()

            txtTextPad.ForeColor = colorDialog.Color

        Catch ex As Exception

        End Try

Find

 Dim x As String

        Dim y As String

        x = InputBox("Enter text to be found")

        y = InStr(txtTextPad.Text, x)

        If y Then

            txtTextPad.Focus()

            txtTextPad.SelectionStart = y - 1

            txtTextPad.SelectionLength = Len(x)

        Else

            MessageBox.Show("Text not found!")

        End If

Status Bar On and Off

StatusStrip1.Visible = True

StatusStrip1.Visible = False

Accept Tab

If txtTextPad.AcceptsTab = True Then

            txtTextPad.AcceptsTab = False

        Else

            txtTextPad.AcceptsTab = True

        End If

Recognize HTML

If txtTextPad.DetectUrls = True Then

            txtTextPad.DetectUrls = False

            RecognizeToolStripMenuItem.Checked = False

        Else

            txtTextPad.DetectUrls = True

            RecognizeToolStripMenuItem.Checked = True

        End If

About

MessageBox.Show("The features of this notepad the same in usual notepad can be found in your computer, a simple notepad program created in Visual Basic.Net 2010 with my own version of customization and function. " & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "By: Tesear.Com", "About", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)

Help

MessageBox.Show("Simply easy, almost the same function as notepad", "Help", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)

Double click the textbox and put this code

        Dim split() As String = txtTextPad.Text.Split(" ")

        'count the number of characters

        'it will display on your status strip

        statusstripnumberoofchar.Text = "Characters: " & txtTextPad.Text.Count()

        'count the number of words

        statustripnumberofwords.Text = "Word: " & split.Length

   

Shortcut command can be found in your properties window.