Getting Started with WPF RadHighlightTextBlock

This tutorial will walk you through the creation of a sample application that contains a RadHighlightTextBlock control.

Assembly References

To use RadHighlightTextBlock, add a reference to the following assembly:

Telerik.Windows.Controls

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

To use RadHighlightTextBlock when working with NuGet packages, install the Telerik.Windows.Controls.for.Wpf.Xaml package. The package name may vary slightly based on the Telerik dlls set - Xaml or NoXaml

Read more about NuGet installation in the Installing UI for WPF from NuGet Package article.

Defining the RadHighlightTextBlock as a Stand-Alone Component

You can add RadHighlightTextBlock manually in XAML as demonstrated in the following example:

Adding RadHighlightTextBlock in XAML

<telerik:RadHighlightTextBlock/>

Setting Text and Highlighting Part of It

The RadHighlightTextBlock control displays a text via its Text property. It will match and highlight part of the presented text by the value that is set to its HighlightText property.

Setting text and highlighting part of it

<telerik:RadHighlightTextBlock Text="Thank you for choosing Telerik UI for WPF." HighlightText="Telerik UI for WPF"/>

RadHighlightTextBlock with a highlighted match

WPF RadHighlightTextBlock with a highlighted match

Changing the Highlight Background and the Highlight Foreground Colors

The RadHighlightTextBlock exposes two properties that will allow you to change the color of the foreground and background of the highlighted matches. To do so, set the HighlightBackground and HighlightForeground properties.

Setting the HighlightBackground and HighlightForeground properties

<telerik:RadHighlightTextBlock Text="Thank you for choosing Telerik UI for WPF."  
                               HighlightText="Telerik UI for WPF" 
                               HighlightBackground="LightCyan" 
                               HighlightForeground="Red"/>

RadHighlightTextBlock with custom brushes for the HighlightBackground and HighlightForeground properties

WPF RadHighlightTextBlock with custom brushes for the HighlightBackground and HighlightForeground properties

Highlighting Mode

RadHighlightTextBlock allows you to control how the highlighting will be applied. To the first found match, the last found one, or all occurrences. To control this behavior, set the HighlightMode property. The available options are FirstMatch, LastMatch, and AllMatches. The default value is FirstMatch.

Setting the HighlightMode to AllMatches

<telerik:RadHighlightTextBlock HighlightMode="AllMatches" 
                               Text="Thank you for choosing Telerik UI for WPF. To learn mode please visit the Telerik UI for WPF product overview page." 
                               HighlightText="Telerik UI for WPF"/>

RadHighlightTextBlock with highlighting all the matches

WPF RadHighlightTextBlock with highlighting all the matches

Setting a Theme

The controls from our suite support different themes. You can see how to apply a theme different than the default one in the Setting a Theme help article.

Changing the theme using implicit styles will affect all controls that have styles defined in the merged resource dictionaries. This is applicable only for the controls in the scope in which the resources are merged.

Choose between the themes and add reference to the corresponding theme assembly (ex: Telerik.Windows.Themes.Windows8.dll). You can see the different themes applied in the Theming examples from our WPF Controls Examples application.
Merge the ResourceDictionaries with the namespace required for the controls that you are using from the theme assembly. For the RadHighlightTextBlock, you will need to merge the following resources:
- Telerik.Windows.Controls

The following example demonstrates how to merge the ResourceDictionaries so that they are applied globally for the entire application.

Merge the ResourceDictionaries

<Application.Resources> 
    <ResourceDictionary> 
        <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries> 
            <ResourceDictionary Source="/Telerik.Windows.Themes.Windows8;component/Themes/System.Windows.xaml"/> 
            <ResourceDictionary Source="/Telerik.Windows.Themes.Windows8;component/Themes/Telerik.Windows.Controls.xaml"/> 
        </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries> 
    </ResourceDictionary> 
</Application.Resources>

Alternatively, you can change the theme of the control via the StyleManager.