Highlight a character within a text

[AWies.1]

I would like to highlight a single character within the text of a flex button. In my application I have an encoder with a button, which can change the numerical value displayed in certain increments, and I would like to switch the position of the highlighted character with each button click, thus indicating that different increments are used. Nice would be something like 123456 or 123456. I actually do not care much about the method for highlighting the character, so it can be a different color, bold face, underline, whatever, as long as it is highlighted. Is there a simple way for doing this? Are there any control sequences available for the text, for example "\u" to indicate that now the text should get underlined?

[MM..1]

Hi,

i mean you have only one way, place over next text, calculate x,y and show one highlighted char in textarea.

[Romain DIELEMAN]

Hi,

I agree with MM, it is the easiest solution especialy for the higligted char: have the flex button write "abc e" and a textarea overt it with the letter you want to highlight " d ". The logic needs to be done through code to be able to navigate within the text. Here is a cursor demo I did a while back. It might help you get some inspiration on how to do your own on a flex button.

/Romain

[MM..1]

simpler is leave "abcde" and only next "d" over

[Romain DIELEMAN]

you are right as this will make sure you have the right width if you do not use a monospace font (where letters do not all have the same width and height).

[AWies.1]

I looked at the cursor example, and think I will try a different approach. I will pack the flex button in a container, use a monospace font, overlay the flex button with a text field and then write a text with an underscore character '_' at the right position.

[Romain DIELEMAN]

perfect 👌 Do not hesitate to share this here if other users could be interested by your solution.

/Romain

[MM..1]

I mean your idea will not work and when you plan only underscore marking you dont need other text, only move an graphics element line .

Underscored font in your second text is used for all characters then all is underscored maybe too spaces.

[Romain DIELEMAN]

yes the "abc e" idea was not for the underscore but for the highlighted character.

[AWies.1]

Overlaying the flex button with a text field worked. I was using a monospace font (Deja Vu, since that font is available in all kinds of variations, proportional and monospace). Marking the position was as easy as writing an underscore ‘_’ character into the buffer of the text field at the right position. I dropped the idea of packing this into a container, since the additional complication I am getting with the container did not outweigh the additional code I need to write if I use this method in several places. I did not check this, but in theory this method should also work for highlighting a character in a different color or with the boldface variation of the font.