Listview column text direction

[Anas]

Hi,

Is it possible to set a different text direction/layout (not alignment) for a Listview column?

 

Thanks.

[Zedna]

Yes but it's quite complicated.

Search this forum for "listView ownerdraw"

[jchd]

Are you talking about Unicode text direction or something else entirely?

[Anas]

Yes, to correctly display a left-to-right text in a column that is part of a right-to-left GUI/Listview (and vice versa).

[jchd]

For me at least writing Urdu or Hebrew text (both RTL) in standard (LTR by default) listview works. I used the help file example for GUICtrlCreateListView and my locale is FR-fr.

Can you post code showing failure?

[Anas]

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <GuiListView.au3>

GUICreate("RTL GUI", 170, 100, -1, -1, -1, $WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL)
$LV = GUICtrlCreateListView('Items', 10, 10, 150, 80)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('C (50 of 200)', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('14-DA-E9-0F-82-8B', $LV)

_GUICtrlListView_JustifyColumn($LV, 0, 1)
_GUICtrlListView_SetColumnWidth($LV, 0, 140)

GUISetState()
While GUIGetMsg() <> $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
WEnd

 

[jchd]

What happens for you when you don't force text direction (RtoL nor LtoR)?

Just writing RtoL ou LtoR text should work.

[Anas]

Where did I force it?

The "_GUICtrlListView_JustifyColumn" doesn't affect the text direction, so you can delete it and get the same results.
And if you mean the GUI's extended style "$WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL", then the issues shown in the example will happen to the RTL text instead of the LTR text.

[jchd]

Is this what you want?

GUICreate("RTL GUI", 170, 100, -1, -1, -1)      ;, $WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL)
$LV = GUICtrlCreateListView('Items', 10, 10, 150, 80)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('C (50 of 200)', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('14-DA-E9-0F-82-8B', $LV)

_GUICtrlListView_JustifyColumn($LV, 0, 0)
_GUICtrlListView_SetColumnWidth($LV, 0, 140)

GUISetState()
While GUIGetMsg() <> $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
WEnd

Note that both RTL and LTR text display correctly when no layout direction is specified:

GUICreate("RTL GUI", 470, 400, -1, -1, -1)  ;, $WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL)
$LV = GUICtrlCreateListView('Items', 10, 10, 350, 380)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('French:  voici mon texte', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('Hebrew:  הנה הטקסט שלי', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('Arabic:  هنا هو نصي', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('Chinese: 这是我的文字', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('Urdu:    یہاں میرا متن ہے', $LV)

_GUICtrlListView_JustifyColumn($LV, 0, 1)
_GUICtrlListView_SetColumnWidth($LV, 0, 240)

GUISetState()
While GUIGetMsg() <> $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
WEnd

 

[Anas]

That's because you started/ended the RTL text with letters.

 

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <GuiListView.au3>

GUICreate("RTL GUI", 470, 400, -1, -1, -1);, $WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL)
$LV = GUICtrlCreateListView('Items', 10, 10, 350, 380)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('25 من 100 وحدة', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('135/م/124', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('معطل (بتاريخ 1436/2/24)', $LV)

_GUICtrlListView_JustifyColumn($LV, 0, 1)
_GUICtrlListView_SetColumnWidth($LV, 0, 240)

GUISetState()
While GUIGetMsg() <> $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
WEnd

 

Besides, almost all the GUI info and controls are RTL, so I need the "$WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL" extended style.

[jchd]

When you need to mix RTL and LTR text you need to use Unicode codepoints to force desired direction. Use 0x202A (LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING), 0x202B (RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING) and 0x202C (POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING), or more directively 0x202D (LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE) and 0x202E (RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE). I'm not sure how codepoints 0x206E (NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES) and 0x206F (NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES) combine with RTL vs. LTR.

Refer to the Unicode standard (Unicode BiDi algorithm isn't particularly simple). Also I believe the rendering also depends on your current locale setting unless overrides are used.

[Anas]

That's more useful than setting the entire column/control text direction.

Thanks jchd.