Is it possible to detect the X-Y position of text INSIDE a label or HtmlText control?

[dehmos27]

I’m trying to add a feature in my app that lets users “click” a word in a label in my app and perform an action. I’m hoping there’s a way to detect the x-y position of each word and then overlay a transparent shape for each word.

I’m curious to see if anyone in the community has a brilliant solution that would make this possible. Alternative suggestions are welcome.

[EricLott]

Very interesting! The best way to do this would be to use a custom component. They are still an experimental feature. Would you be okay with using experimental features in your app? They may break randomly.

Also, will this be a single line label?

[dehmos27]

@EricLott, I’d be fine with custom components. This will be a multi-line label. Lots of text.

[EricLott]

I've got a starting point for you to get going.

Create a label (we'll call it Label1)

In the label's Text property, add "This is a test"

Create a rectangle (in the Icons dropdown menu) (we'll call it Rectangle1)

Make it transparent with a border (just so you can see where it is)

Set the rectangle's Y property to

Label1.Y

Set the rectangle's X property to

Label1.X + (Find("test",Label1.Text) * 10)

Set the rectangle's width property to

Len("test") * 12

 This should give you a rectangle that encompasses the test "test" in the label.

You can now change the rectangle' OnSelect property.

I mentioned components because you could pass a Word property to the component and replace the explicit references to a dynamic property.

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[EricLott]

The label being multiline will change things. You'll have to alter the rectangle's Y property.

Not sure how to do that off the top of my head. I can look into it though.

Also, above I left out the rectangle's height property. For single line, you'll set it to 

Label1.Height

[dehmos27]

Thanks for the response. This seems like a very interesting path. I’d definitely be interested to hear if you have a Y movement solution for multi-line content.

Are you able to expound more on the Word property for the custom component? I’m familiar with the basics of components and have designed a few myself, but I’m trying to envision how that could work on this scenario.

[KickingApps]

I'm curious, what type of actions are you wanting to perform?

[sayyed007amir]

Method1:
You can easily detect X Y coordinates of label. Use Label1.X and Label1.Y where you want to show.
and alternatively you can use this also.

Method2:
For example: Define two input text  (Format: number) eg. input1 and input2
Then, In label's X property define input1.Text and in Y property input2.Text

Whatever you will input in InputBox your position will change

[EricLott]

In a custom component, you can define custom properties (either an input or an output). The 'Word' property would be an input. If your label text is "This is a test" and your component's 'Word' property was set to "test", then you could reference that in the example I put above instead of hard-coding "test" into the X, Y, width, etc properties. It would just make it more dynamic.

I still can't think of a solution to the Y detection I mentioned. I'll report back if I do!  

[dehmos27]

KickingApps, I’m wanting to mimic highlighting of the text or allow users to add notes to the selected word like one can do on Kindle or in MS Word with comments.