Highlight words in UIAlertView? (with bold text)

Question

I want to highlight some words in my UIAlertView message, either by making it bold, or, by underline.

let message = "This is normal text.\nBold Title:\n This is normal text"

let alert = UIAlertView(title: "Title", message: message, delegate: self, cancelButtonTitle: "Cancel", otherButtonTitles: "OK")

alert.show()

How could I make "Bold Title" bold (or underline) in message?

Maybe try with something corresponding to http://stackoverflow.com/a/25260137/3151066 — Julian, Aug 05 '15 at 10:52
perfect :) title has to be represented by some UILabel then :) I would investigate something like UILabel contained in UIAlertView and see the effects, at leat try to play around or... create your own AlertView :) — Julian, Aug 05 '15 at 11:06
`UIAppearance` can't be used to customize `UIAlertView` - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13928525/use-uiappearance-methods-for-customizing-uialertview — iOS, Aug 05 '15 at 11:15
oh :( good to know. So your option is to go ahead with your own component — Julian, Aug 05 '15 at 11:16

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 24 '17 at 15:31

This is what I did using accessoryView of UILabel and adding it in the Alert.Here the word YES will be in Bold in the sentence.

UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"Title for your alert" message:@"" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
            UILabel *lbl = [[UILabel alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0, 900, 900)];
            lbl.numberOfLines=1;
            lbl.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = YES;
            NSMutableAttributedString *attributedStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]initWithString:@"Please press Yes"];
            [attributedStr addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:20.0] range:NSMakeRange(13,3)];
            lbl.attributedText = attributedStr;
            lbl.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
            [alert setValue:lbl forKey:@"accessoryView"];
            [alert show];

Wow, I struggled to convert your answer to Xamarin C#. But this answer worked for me. — Pierre, Jan 27 '17 at 07:26
Okay, i figured it. I was trying to do addSubview at the end but instead i should have done alertview.SetValueForKey(label, @"accessoryView")... — Onur Keskin, Feb 01 '17 at 11:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '15 at 10:50

2

This is currently not possible, as the UIAlertView API does not support attributed strings, which would be the normal way you would accomplish something like this.

answered Aug 05 '15 at 10:50

Andrew Ebling

10,175
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that is true but I just wonder whether using appearance that could be done (?) similarly to http://stackoverflow.com/a/25260137/3151066 – Julian Aug 05 '15 at 10:51
I tried with `NSMutableAttributedString` also. But unsuccessful. So, there is no way to highlight? – iOS Aug 05 '15 at 10:51
You may potentially be able to use the UIAppearance API to change *all* the text in the alert view message, but not selectively, as the OP wants. – Andrew Ebling Aug 05 '15 at 10:55
that is true again but he/she didn't mention that has this kind of restrictions and I assume that it is obvious side effect of appearance :) – Julian Aug 05 '15 at 10:59
this is such a shame. Attributed strings would allow much more enjoyable content when displaying validation errors, for example. – Gil Sand Nov 05 '15 at 14:11

Pasha_Molodkin · Answer 3 · 2015-08-06T13:14:25.633

0

The UIAlertView cannot be changed. If you wish to modify it, you will need to create your own from scratch.

Please read: UIAlertView Class Reference

The UIAlertView class is intended to be used as-is and does not support subclassing. The view hierarchy for this class is private and must not be modified.

Maybe you should go to UIAlertController there is support for editing.

edited Aug 06 '15 at 13:14

answered Aug 06 '15 at 12:50

Pasha_Molodkin

51
3

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '17 at 07:47

Onur Keskin asked, code for Xamarin doing what OP asked. Basically Subin's answer converted:

var message = "This is normal text.\n<b>Bold Title:</b>\n This is normal text\n<b>Bold 1:</b> bold 1 text\n";

var b_open = "<b>";
var b_close = "</b>";
var boldSpots = new List<NSRange>();
var boldCount = (message.Length - message.Replace(b_open, "").Length) / b_open.Length;
for (int i = 0; i < boldCount; i++)
{
    var startBold = message.IndexOf(b_open);
    var endBold = message.IndexOf(b_close);
    message = message.Remove(startBold, b_open.Length).Remove(endBold - b_close.Length + 1, b_close.Length);
    boldSpots.Add(new NSRange(startBold, endBold - startBold - b_close.Length + 1));
}
var attrString = new NSMutableAttributedString(message);
boldSpots.ForEach(nsRange => attrString.AddAttribute(UIStringAttributeKey.Font, UIFont.FromName(ConfigurationProvider.FocoBold, 16), nsRange));

var lines = message.Length - message.Replace(@"\n", "").Length;

UILabel lbl = new UILabel(new CGRect(0, 0, 1, 1))
{
    Lines = lines,
    AdjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true,
    AttributedText = attrString,
    TextAlignment = UITextAlignment.Center
};

var alert = new UIAlertView
{
    Title = "My Title"
};

alert.SetValueForKey(lbl, new NSString("accessoryView"));

alert.AddButton("OK");
alert.Clicked += (s, e) => {
    //OK Clicked
};
alert.Show();

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '20 at 13:55

it's not with an alertView but with AlertViewController here's how you present a bold text

let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "", message: "", preferredStyle: .alert)

let attributedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Bold text", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.font: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .semibold)])
alertController.setValue(message, forKey: "attributedMessage")

controller.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)

Highlight words in UIAlertView? (with bold text)

5 Answers5