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I am developing an app like Notepad in which I want to change the selected text formatting dynamically (colors, changing font styles, bold, italic, underline etc.) How can I format a specific word?

JJJ
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Nik88
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2 Answers2

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You can get the selected word using getSelectionStart() and getSelectionEnd() method :

EditText etx=(EditText)findViewById(R.id.editext);

int startSelection=etx.getSelectionStart();
int endSelection=etx.getSelectionEnd();

String selectedText = etx.getText().substring(startSelection, endSelection);

Then you can apply your specific formatting by using this selected substring in the full string after taking it to a SpannableStringBuilder on a button click/some other event:

Code for formatting text:

  int startSelection=etx.getSelectionStart();
  int endSelection=etx.getSelectionEnd();

                  final SpannableStringBuilder sb = new SpannableStringBuilder(etx.getText().toString());

                        final StyleSpan bss = new StyleSpan(android.graphics.Typeface.BOLD); // Span to make text bold
                        final StyleSpan iss = new StyleSpan(android.graphics.Typeface.ITALIC); // Span to make text italic                                     
                        sb.setSpan(iss, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                        sb.setSpan(bss, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                        etx.setText(sb);

Reference.

Community
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Imran Rana
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  • @Imaran If user select some text at runtime than How can I know what is the "startSelection" and "endSelection" value? Can u give me suggestion for this? – Nik88 May 18 '12 at 10:53
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    You are using `getSelectionStart()` and `getSelectionEnd();` method to get those value. So think there is a button namely **ITALIC**. After selecting the text user will click this button to get italic effect. Then you can get those value on the button click event like: `ITALIC.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub int startSelection=etx.getSelectionStart(); int endSelection=etx.getSelectionEnd(); } });` – Imran Rana May 18 '12 at 10:59
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    @Imaran. Thanks a lot for giving your time. Its working great. – Nik88 May 18 '12 at 11:02
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EditText et1=(EditText)findViewById(R.id.edit);

int startSelection=et.getSelectionStart();
int endSelection=et.getSelectionEnd();

String selectedText = et1.getText().substring(startSelection, endSelection);

Hope this code suits yours case

Thiru VT
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