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UI Automation Text Attributes

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This topic describes how Microsoft UI Automation exposes the format and style properties (text attributes) of textual content, and provides a list of supported text attributes.

UI Automation providers expose text attributes through the GetAttributeValue and FindAttribute methods of the TextRange control pattern. Client applications use the IUIAutomationTextRange::GetAttributeValue method to retrieve the value of a particular text attribute for a text range. Clients can use the IUIAutomationTextRange::FindAttribute method to search a text range for text that has a particular attribute. If any matching text is found, the method creates a new text range that contains the matching text.

The text attributes in the following list are supported by the TextRange control pattern. The attribute names are derived from the UI Automation text attribute identifiers. For example, the AnimationStyle attribute is identified by clients as UIA_AnimationStyleAttributeId (defined in Uiautomationclient.h) and by providers as Text_AnimationStyle_Attribute_GUID (defined in Uiautomationcoreapi.h). For more information about each supported text attribute, see Text Attribute Identifiers.

Note

Some of the attributes listed are supported starting with Windows 8. See Text Attribute Identifiers for notes regarding version support.

 

This topic contains the following sections:

Annotation Attributes

Annotation objects and annotation types are available through the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
AnnotationObjects UIA_AnnotationObjectsAttributeId
AnnotationTypes UIA_AnnotationTypesAttributeId

 

Font Attributes

The name, size, and weight of a font is available through the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
FontName UIA_FontNameAttributeId
FontSize UIA_FontSizeAttributeId
FontWeight UIA_FontWeightAttributeId

 

Language Attributes

Information about the language of the text is available through the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
Culture UIA_CultureAttributeId
TextFlowDirections UIA_TextFlowDirectionsAttributeId

 

The following attribute provides the text range that is the target of a link in a document.

Attribute Identifier
Link UIA_LinkAttributeId

 

Page Margin Attributes

The bounding rectangles of a text range do not expose the coordinates of the text in the page. However, a provider can expose the page margin information using the following text attributes.

Attribute Identifier
MarginBottom UIA_MarginBottomAttributeId
MarginLeading UIA_MarginLeadingAttributeId
MarginTop UIA_MarginTopAttributeId
MarginTrailing UIA_MarginTrailingAttributeId

 

Text Alignment Attributes

Information about text alignment such as indentation, tab settings, and horizontal alignment is available through the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
HorizontalTextAlignment UIA_HorizontalTextAlignmentAttributeId
IndentationFirstLine UIA_IndentationFirstLineAttributeId
IndentationLeading UIA_IndentationLeadingAttributeId
IndentationTrailing UIA_IndentationTrailingAttributeId
Tabs UIA_TabsAttributeId

 

Text Color Attributes

The foreground and background text colors are available through the following text attributes. Both colors are specified as a COLORREF data type.

Attribute Identifier
BackgroundColor UIA_BackgroundColorAttributeId
ForegroundColor UIA_ForegroundColorAttributeId

 

Text Decoration Attributes

Text decorations include areas such as bullets, underlining, and animations. If text includes leading bullets or numbers, the symbol or text used for the bullet or number should be included in the text stream, if applicable.

Information about text decorations is available through the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
AnimationStyle UIA_AnimationStyleAttributeId
BulletStyle UIA_BulletStyleAttributeId
OutlineStyles UIA_OutlineStylesAttributeId
OverlineColor UIA_OverlineColorAttributeId
OverlineStyle UIA_OverlineStyleAttributeId
StrikethroughColor UIA_StrikethroughColorAttributeId
StrikethroughStyle UIA_StrikethroughStyleAttributeId
UnderlineColor UIA_UnderlineColorAttributeId
UnderlineStyle UIA_UnderlineStyleAttributeId

 

Text Style Attributes

Information about text styles is available though the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
CapStyle UIA_CapStyleAttributeId
IsHidden UIA_IsHiddenAttributeId
IsItalic UIA_IsItalicAttributeId
IsReadOnly UIA_IsReadOnlyAttributeId
IsSuperscript UIA_IsSuperscriptAttributeId
IsSubscript UIA_IsSubscriptAttributeId

 

Interaction and Selection Attributes

Information about current text selection in the range and focus state is available though the following attributes.

Attribute Identifier
IsActive UIA_IsActiveAttributeId
SelectionActiveEnd UIA_SelectionActiveEndAttributeId
CaretPosition UIA_CaretPositionAttributeId
CaretBidiMode UIA_CaretBidiModeAttributeId

 

Conceptual

About the UI Automation Text and TextRange Control Patterns

Text and TextRange Control Patterns

Working with Text-based Controls