QTextEdit

The QTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display both plain and rich text. More

Inheritance diagram of PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit

Inherited by: QTextBrowser

Synopsis

Functions

Virtual functions

Slots

Detailed Description

Introduction and Concepts

QTextEdit is an advanced WYSIWYG viewer/editor supporting rich text formatting using HTML-style tags. It is optimized to handle large documents and to respond quickly to user input.

QTextEdit works on paragraphs and characters. A paragraph is a formatted string which is word-wrapped to fit into the width of the widget. By default when reading plain text, one newline signifies a paragraph. A document consists of zero or more paragraphs. The words in the paragraph are aligned in accordance with the paragraph’s alignment. Paragraphs are separated by hard line breaks. Each character within a paragraph has its own attributes, for example, font and color.

QTextEdit can display images, lists and tables. If the text is too large to view within the text edit’s viewport, scroll bars will appear. The text edit can load both plain text and rich text files. Rich text is described using a subset of HTML 4 markup, refer to the Supported HTML Subset page for more information.

If you just need to display a small piece of rich text use QLabel .

The rich text support in Qt is designed to provide a fast, portable and efficient way to add reasonable online help facilities to applications, and to provide a basis for rich text editors. If you find the HTML support insufficient for your needs you may consider the use of Qt WebKit, which provides a full-featured web browser widget.

The shape of the mouse cursor on a QTextEdit is IBeamCursor by default. It can be changed through the viewport() ‘s cursor property.

Using QTextEdit as a Display Widget

QTextEdit can display a large HTML subset, including tables and images.

The text is set or replaced using setHtml() which deletes any existing text and replaces it with the text passed in the setHtml() call. If you call setHtml() with legacy HTML, and then call toHtml() , the text that is returned may have different markup, but will render the same. The entire text can be deleted with clear() .

Text itself can be inserted using the QTextCursor class or using the convenience functions insertHtml() , insertPlainText() , append() or paste() . QTextCursor is also able to insert complex objects like tables or lists into the document, and it deals with creating selections and applying changes to selected text.

By default the text edit wraps words at whitespace to fit within the text edit widget. The setLineWrapMode() function is used to specify the kind of line wrap you want, or NoWrap if you don’t want any wrapping. Call setLineWrapMode() to set a fixed pixel width FixedPixelWidth , or character column (e.g. 80 column) FixedColumnWidth with the pixels or columns specified with setLineWrapColumnOrWidth() . If you use word wrap to the widget’s width WidgetWidth , you can specify whether to break on whitespace or anywhere with setWordWrapMode() .

The find() function can be used to find and select a given string within the text.

If you want to limit the total number of paragraphs in a QTextEdit , as for example it is often useful in a log viewer, then you can use QTextDocument ‘s maximumBlockCount property for that.

Read-only Key Bindings

When QTextEdit is used read-only the key bindings are limited to navigation, and text may only be selected with the mouse:

Keypresses

Action

Up

Moves one line up.

Down

Moves one line down.

Left

Moves one character to the left.

Right

Moves one character to the right.

PageUp

Moves one (viewport) page up.

PageDown

Moves one (viewport) page down.

Home

Moves to the beginning of the text.

End

Moves to the end of the text.

Alt+Wheel

Scrolls the page horizontally (the Wheel is the mouse wheel).

Ctrl+Wheel

Zooms the text.

Ctrl+A

Selects all text.

The text edit may be able to provide some meta-information. For example, the documentTitle() function will return the text from within HTML <title> tags.

Note

Zooming into HTML documents only works if the font-size is not set to a fixed size.

Using QTextEdit as an Editor

All the information about using QTextEdit as a display widget also applies here.

The current char format’s attributes are set with setFontItalic() , setFontWeight() , setFontUnderline() , setFontFamily() , setFontPointSize() , setTextColor() and setCurrentFont() . The current paragraph’s alignment is set with setAlignment() .

Selection of text is handled by the QTextCursor class, which provides functionality for creating selections, retrieving the text contents or deleting selections. You can retrieve the object that corresponds with the user-visible cursor using the textCursor() method. If you want to set a selection in QTextEdit just create one on a QTextCursor object and then make that cursor the visible cursor using setTextCursor() . The selection can be copied to the clipboard with copy() , or cut to the clipboard with cut() . The entire text can be selected using selectAll() .

When the cursor is moved and the underlying formatting attributes change, the currentCharFormatChanged() signal is emitted to reflect the new attributes at the new cursor position.

The textChanged() signal is emitted whenever the text changes (as a result of setText() or through the editor itself).

QTextEdit holds a QTextDocument object which can be retrieved using the document() method. You can also set your own document object using setDocument() .

QTextDocument provides an isModified() function which will return true if the text has been modified since it was either loaded or since the last call to setModified with false as argument. In addition it provides methods for undo and redo.

Drag and Drop

QTextEdit also supports custom drag and drop behavior. By default, QTextEdit will insert plain text, HTML and rich text when the user drops data of these MIME types onto a document. Reimplement canInsertFromMimeData() and insertFromMimeData() to add support for additional MIME types.

For example, to allow the user to drag and drop an image onto a QTextEdit , you could the implement these functions in the following way:

def canInsertFromMimeData(source):
    if source.hasImage:
        return True
    else:
        return QTextEdit.canInsertFromMimeData(source)

We add support for image MIME types by returning true. For all other MIME types, we use the default implementation.

void TextEdit::insertFromMimeData( const QMimeData *source )
{
    if (source->hasImage())
    {
        QImage image = qvariant_cast<QImage>(source->imageData());
        QTextCursor cursor = this->textCursor();
        QTextDocument *document = this->document();
        document->addResource(QTextDocument::ImageResource, QUrl("image"), image);
        cursor.insertImage("image");
    }
}

We unpack the image from the QVariant held by the MIME source and insert it into the document as a resource.

Editing Key Bindings

The list of key bindings which are implemented for editing:

Keypresses

Action

Backspace

Deletes the character to the left of the cursor.

Delete

Deletes the character to the right of the cursor.

Ctrl+C

Copy the selected text to the clipboard.

Ctrl+Insert

Copy the selected text to the clipboard.

Ctrl+K

Deletes to the end of the line.

Ctrl+V

Pastes the clipboard text into text edit.

Shift+Insert

Pastes the clipboard text into text edit.

Ctrl+X

Deletes the selected text and copies it to the clipboard.

Shift+Delete

Deletes the selected text and copies it to the clipboard.

Ctrl+Z

Undoes the last operation.

Ctrl+Y

Redoes the last operation.

Left

Moves the cursor one character to the left.

Ctrl+Left

Moves the cursor one word to the left.

Right

Moves the cursor one character to the right.

Ctrl+Right

Moves the cursor one word to the right.

Up

Moves the cursor one line up.

Down

Moves the cursor one line down.

PageUp

Moves the cursor one page up.

PageDown

Moves the cursor one page down.

Home

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line.

Ctrl+Home

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the text.

End

Moves the cursor to the end of the line.

Ctrl+End

Moves the cursor to the end of the text.

Alt+Wheel

Scrolls the page horizontally (the Wheel is the mouse wheel).

To select (mark) text hold down the Shift key whilst pressing one of the movement keystrokes, for example, Shift+Right will select the character to the right, and Shift+Ctrl+Right will select the word to the right, etc.

class QTextEdit([parent=None])

QTextEdit(text[, parent=None])

param parent

QWidget

param text

unicode

Constructs an empty QTextEdit with parent parent .

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.LineWrapMode

Constant

Description

QTextEdit.NoWrap

QTextEdit.WidgetWidth

QTextEdit.FixedPixelWidth

QTextEdit.FixedColumnWidth

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.AutoFormattingFlag

Constant

Description

QTextEdit.AutoNone

Don’t do any automatic formatting.

QTextEdit.AutoBulletList

Automatically create bullet lists (e.g. when the user enters an asterisk (‘*’) in the left most column, or presses Enter in an existing list item.

QTextEdit.AutoAll

Apply all automatic formatting. Currently only automatic bullet lists are supported.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.acceptRichText()
Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.alignment()
Return type

Alignment

Returns the alignment of the current paragraph.

See also

setAlignment()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.anchorAt(pos)
Parameters

posQPoint

Return type

unicode

Returns the reference of the anchor at position pos , or an empty string if no anchor exists at that point.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.append(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

Appends a new paragraph with text to the end of the text edit.

Note

The new paragraph appended will have the same character format and block format as the current paragraph, determined by the position of the cursor.

See also

currentCharFormat() blockFormat()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.autoFormatting()
Return type

AutoFormatting

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.canInsertFromMimeData(source)
Parameters

sourceQMimeData

Return type

bool

This function returns true if the contents of the MIME data object, specified by source , can be decoded and inserted into the document. It is called for example when during a drag operation the mouse enters this widget and it is necessary to determine whether it is possible to accept the drag and drop operation.

Reimplement this function to enable drag and drop support for additional MIME types.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.canPaste()
Return type

bool

Returns whether text can be pasted from the clipboard into the textedit.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.clear()

Deletes all the text in the text edit.

Notes:

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.copy()

Copies any selected text to the clipboard.

See also

copyAvailable()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.copyAvailable(b)
Parameters

bbool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.createMimeDataFromSelection()
Return type

QMimeData

This function returns a new MIME data object to represent the contents of the text edit’s current selection. It is called when the selection needs to be encapsulated into a new QMimeData object; for example, when a drag and drop operation is started, or when data is copied to the clipboard.

If you reimplement this function, note that the ownership of the returned QMimeData object is passed to the caller. The selection can be retrieved by using the textCursor() function.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.createStandardContextMenu()
Return type

QMenu

This function creates the standard context menu which is shown when the user clicks on the text edit with the right mouse button. It is called from the default contextMenuEvent() handler. The popup menu’s ownership is transferred to the caller.

We recommend that you use the ( QPoint ) version instead which will enable the actions that are sensitive to where the user clicked.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.createStandardContextMenu(position)
Parameters

positionQPoint

Return type

QMenu

This function creates the standard context menu which is shown when the user clicks on the text edit with the right mouse button. It is called from the default contextMenuEvent() handler and it takes the position in document coordinates where the mouse click was. This can enable actions that are sensitive to the position where the user clicked. The popup menu’s ownership is transferred to the caller.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.currentCharFormat()
Return type

QTextCharFormat

Returns the char format that is used when inserting new text.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.currentCharFormatChanged(format)
Parameters

formatQTextCharFormat

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.currentFont()
Return type

QFont

Returns the font of the current format.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cursorForPosition(pos)
Parameters

posQPoint

Return type

QTextCursor

returns a QTextCursor at position pos (in viewport coordinates).

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cursorPositionChanged()
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cursorRect()
Return type

QRect

returns a rectangle (in viewport coordinates) that includes the cursor of the text edit.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cursorRect(cursor)
Parameters

cursorQTextCursor

Return type

QRect

returns a rectangle (in viewport coordinates) that includes the cursor .

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cursorWidth()
Return type

int

See also

setCursorWidth()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.cut()

Copies the selected text to the clipboard and deletes it from the text edit.

If there is no selected text nothing happens.

See also

copy() paste()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.doSetTextCursor(cursor)
Parameters

cursorQTextCursor

This provides a hook for subclasses to intercept cursor changes.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.document()
Return type

QTextDocument

See also

setDocument()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.documentTitle()
Return type

unicode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.ensureCursorVisible()

Ensures that the cursor is visible by scrolling the text edit if necessary.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.extraSelections()
Return type

Returns previously set extra selections.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.find(exp[, options=QTextDocument.FindFlags()])
Parameters
  • expQRegExp

  • optionsFindFlags

Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.find(exp[, options=QTextDocument.FindFlags()])
Parameters
  • exp – unicode

  • optionsFindFlags

Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.fontFamily()
Return type

unicode

Returns the font family of the current format.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.fontItalic()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the font of the current format is italic; otherwise returns false.

See also

setFontItalic()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.fontPointSize()
Return type

qreal

Returns the point size of the font of the current format.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.fontUnderline()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the font of the current format is underlined; otherwise returns false.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.fontWeight()
Return type

int

Returns the font weight of the current format.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.inputMethodQuery(query, argument)
Parameters
  • queryInputMethodQuery

  • argument – object

Return type

object

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.insertFromMimeData(source)
Parameters

sourceQMimeData

This function inserts the contents of the MIME data object, specified by source , into the text edit at the current cursor position. It is called whenever text is inserted as the result of a clipboard paste operation, or when the text edit accepts data from a drag and drop operation.

Reimplement this function to enable drag and drop support for additional MIME types.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.insertHtml(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

Convenience slot that inserts text which is assumed to be of html formatting at the current cursor position.

It is equivalent to:

edit.textCursor().insertHtml(fragment)

Note

When using this function with a style sheet, the style sheet will only apply to the current block in the document. In order to apply a style sheet throughout a document, use setDefaultStyleSheet() instead.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.insertPlainText(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

Convenience slot that inserts text at the current cursor position.

It is equivalent to

edit.textCursor().insertText(text)
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.isReadOnly()
Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.isUndoRedoEnabled()
Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.lineWrapColumnOrWidth()
Return type

int

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.lineWrapMode()
Return type

LineWrapMode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.loadResource(type, name)
Parameters
  • typeint

  • nameQUrl

Return type

object

Loads the resource specified by the given type and name .

This function is an extension of loadResource() .

See also

loadResource()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.mergeCurrentCharFormat(modifier)
Parameters

modifierQTextCharFormat

Merges the properties specified in modifier into the current character format by calling mergeCharFormat on the editor’s cursor. If the editor has a selection then the properties of modifier are directly applied to the selection.

See also

mergeCharFormat()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.moveCursor(operation[, mode=QTextCursor.MoveAnchor])
Parameters
  • operationMoveOperation

  • modeMoveMode

Moves the cursor by performing the given operation .

If mode is KeepAnchor , the cursor selects the text it moves over. This is the same effect that the user achieves when they hold down the Shift key and move the cursor with the cursor keys.

See also

movePosition()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.overwriteMode()
Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.paste()

Pastes the text from the clipboard into the text edit at the current cursor position.

If there is no text in the clipboard nothing happens.

To change the behavior of this function, i.e. to modify what QTextEdit can paste and how it is being pasted, reimplement the virtual canInsertFromMimeData() and insertFromMimeData() functions.

See also

cut() copy()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.placeholderText()
Return type

unicode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.print_(printer)
Parameters

printerQPagedPaintDevice

Convenience function to print the text edit’s document to the given printer . This is equivalent to calling the print method on the document directly except that this function also supports Selection as print range.

See also

print()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.redo()

Redoes the last operation.

If there is no operation to redo, i.e. there is no redo step in the undo/redo history, nothing happens.

See also

undo()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.redoAvailable(b)
Parameters

bbool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.scrollToAnchor(name)
Parameters

name – unicode

Scrolls the text edit so that the anchor with the given name is visible; does nothing if the name is empty, or is already visible, or isn’t found.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.selectAll()

Selects all text.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.selectionChanged()
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setAcceptRichText(accept)
Parameters

acceptbool

See also

acceptRichText()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setAlignment(a)
Parameters

aAlignment

Sets the alignment of the current paragraph to a . Valid alignments are AlignLeft , AlignRight , AlignJustify and AlignCenter (which centers horizontally).

See also

alignment()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setAutoFormatting(features)
Parameters

featuresAutoFormatting

See also

autoFormatting()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setCurrentCharFormat(format)
Parameters

formatQTextCharFormat

Sets the char format that is be used when inserting new text to format by calling setCharFormat() on the editor’s cursor. If the editor has a selection then the char format is directly applied to the selection.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setCurrentFont(f)
Parameters

fQFont

Sets the font of the current format to f .

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setCursorWidth(width)
Parameters

widthint

See also

cursorWidth()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setDocument(document)
Parameters

documentQTextDocument

See also

document()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setDocumentTitle(title)
Parameters

title – unicode

See also

documentTitle()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setExtraSelections(selections)
Parameters

selections

This function allows temporarily marking certain regions in the document with a given color, specified as selections . This can be useful for example in a programming editor to mark a whole line of text with a given background color to indicate the existence of a breakpoint.

See also

ExtraSelection extraSelections()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setFontFamily(fontFamily)
Parameters

fontFamily – unicode

Sets the font family of the current format to fontFamily .

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setFontItalic(b)
Parameters

bbool

If italic is true, sets the current format to italic; otherwise sets the current format to non-italic.

See also

fontItalic()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setFontPointSize(s)
Parameters

sqreal

Sets the point size of the current format to s .

Note that if s is zero or negative, the behavior of this function is not defined.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setFontUnderline(b)
Parameters

bbool

If underline is true, sets the current format to underline; otherwise sets the current format to non-underline.

See also

fontUnderline()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setFontWeight(w)
Parameters

wint

Sets the font weight of the current format to the given weight , where the value used is in the range defined by the Weight enum.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setHtml(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setLineWrapColumnOrWidth(w)
Parameters

wint

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setLineWrapMode(mode)
Parameters

modeLineWrapMode

See also

lineWrapMode()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setOverwriteMode(overwrite)
Parameters

overwritebool

See also

overwriteMode()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setPlaceholderText(placeholderText)
Parameters

placeholderText – unicode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setPlainText(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

Changes the text of the text edit to the string text . Any previous text is removed.

Notes:

  • text is interpreted as plain text.

  • The undo/redo history is also cleared.

  • currentCharFormat() is reset, unless textCursor() is already at the beginning of the document.

See also

toPlainText()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setReadOnly(ro)
Parameters

robool

See also

isReadOnly()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTabChangesFocus(b)
Parameters

bbool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTabStopDistance(distance)
Parameters

distanceqreal

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTabStopWidth(width)
Parameters

widthint

See also

tabStopWidth()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setText(text)
Parameters

text – unicode

Sets the text edit’s text . The text can be plain text or HTML and the text edit will try to guess the right format.

Use setHtml() or setPlainText() directly to avoid text edit’s guessing.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTextBackgroundColor(c)
Parameters

cQColor

Sets the text background color of the current format to c .

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTextColor(c)
Parameters

cQColor

Sets the text color of the current format to c .

See also

textColor()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTextCursor(cursor)
Parameters

cursorQTextCursor

Sets the visible cursor .

See also

textCursor()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setTextInteractionFlags(flags)
Parameters

flagsTextInteractionFlags

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setUndoRedoEnabled(enable)
Parameters

enablebool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.setWordWrapMode(policy)
Parameters

policyWrapMode

See also

wordWrapMode()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.tabChangesFocus()
Return type

bool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.tabStopDistance()
Return type

qreal

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.tabStopWidth()
Return type

int

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.textBackgroundColor()
Return type

QColor

Returns the text background color of the current format.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.textChanged()
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.textColor()
Return type

QColor

Returns the text color of the current format.

See also

setTextColor()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.textCursor()
Return type

QTextCursor

Returns a copy of the QTextCursor that represents the currently visible cursor. Note that changes on the returned cursor do not affect QTextEdit ‘s cursor; use setTextCursor() to update the visible cursor.

See also

setTextCursor()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.textInteractionFlags()
Return type

TextInteractionFlags

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.toHtml()
Return type

unicode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.toPlainText()
Return type

unicode

QString const

Returns the text of the text edit as plain text.

See also

setPlainText()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.undo()

Undoes the last operation.

If there is no operation to undo, i.e. there is no undo step in the undo/redo history, nothing happens.

See also

redo()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.undoAvailable(b)
Parameters

bbool

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.wordWrapMode()
Return type

WrapMode

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.zoomIn([range=1])
Parameters

rangeint

Zooms in on the text by making the base font size range points larger and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

See also

zoomOut()

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.zoomInF(range)
Parameters

rangefloat

PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit.zoomOut([range=1])
Parameters

rangeint

Zooms out on the text by making the base font size range points smaller and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

See also

zoomIn()