AutoHotKey: InputBox with multiline input

Question

In AutoHotKey, I want to have something like InputBox except that the text input is multiline. (i.e. like a textarea).

I want there to be two buttons, "Ok" and "Cancel", and I want them both to have accelerators. I want this code to be in the form of a function that I can call from other hotkeys to get multiline user input whenever I want. I want to be able to set the default text shown when the dialog is shown. I want the function to return null or empty string if the cancel button was pressed. I want the Esc key to cause the dialog to be closed as if the cancel button was pressed (and not exit the entire script). I want the dialog to show in the center of the screen, and to use the font that Windows usually uses for dialogs.

Answer 1

try this

!1::
MsgBox % MultiLineInputBox("Hello World:", "stuff, more stuff", "Custom Caption")
return

MultiLineInputBox(Text:="", Default:="", Caption:="Multi Line Input Box"){
    static
    ButtonOK:=ButtonCancel:= false
    if !MultiLineInputBoxGui{
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Text, r1 w600  , % Text
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Edit, r10 w600 vMultiLineInputBox, % Default
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 gMultiLineInputBoxOK , &OK
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 x+10 gMultiLineInputBoxCancel, &Cancel
        MultiLineInputBoxGui := true
    }
    GuiControl,MultiLineInputBox:, MultiLineInputBox, % Default
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Show,, % Caption
    SendMessage, 0xB1, 0, -1, Edit1, A
    while !(ButtonOK||ButtonCancel)
        continue
    if ButtonCancel
        return
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Submit, NoHide
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Cancel
    return MultiLineInputBox
    ;----------------------
    MultiLineInputBoxOK:
    ButtonOK:= true
    return
    ;---------------------- 
    MultiLineInputBoxGuiEscape:
    MultiLineInputBoxCancel:
    ButtonCancel:= true
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Cancel
    return
}

Answer 2

You can keep it pretty short:
(tested and works)

MultiLineInput(Text:="Waiting for Input") {
    Global MLI_Edit
    Gui, Add, Edit, vMLI_Edit x2 y2 w396 r4
    Gui, Add, Button, gMLI_OK x1 y63 w199 h30, &OK
    Gui, Add, Button, gMLI_Cancel x200 y63 w199 h30, &Cancel
    Gui, Show, h94 w400, %Text%
    Goto, MLI_Wait
    MLI_OK:
        GuiControlGet, MLI_Edit
    MLI_Cancel:
    GuiEscape:
        ReturnNow := True
    MLI_Wait:
        While (!ReturnNow)
            Sleep, 100
    Gui, Destroy
    Return %MLI_Edit%
}

MsgBox % MultiLineInput("Tell me 5 things you like.")

This is what it could look like:

And here is what it returns printed in a MsgBox: Click

Answer 3

Updated version from answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/25800045/2043349 that fixes the bug that the Prompt Text won't be updated if you use the function multiple times:

MultiLineInputBox(Text:="", Default:="", Caption:="Multi Line Input Box")
{
    static
    ButtonOK:=ButtonCancel:= false
    Gui GuiMLIB:New,, % Caption
    Gui, add, Text, w600, % Text
    Gui, add, Edit, r10 w600 vMLIBEdit, % Default
    Gui, add, Button, w60 gMLIBOK , &OK
    Gui, add, Button, w60 x+10 gMLIBCancel, &Cancel

    Gui, Show
    while !(ButtonOK||ButtonCancel)
        continue
    if ButtonCancel
        return
    Gui, Submit
    return MLIBEdit
    ;----------------------
    MLIBOK:
    ButtonOK:= true
    return
    ;---------------------- 
    GuiMLIBGuiEscape:
    GuiMLIBGuiClose:
    MLIBCancel:
    ButtonCancel:= true
    Gui, Cancel
    return
}

Answer 4

Here is a code:

Version 1 (with Gosub):

return
StartGui:
Gui, Add, Edit, x22 y19 w240 h120 vMyEdit, Here is default text
Gui, Add, Button, x22 y179 w100 h30 gGuiCloseOk, Ok
Gui, Add, Button, x162 y179 w100 h30 gGuiCloseCancel, Cancel
; Generated using SmartGUI Creator for SciTE
Gui, Show, w286 h231, My Gui Name

WinGetPos,,, Width, Height, My Gui Name
WinMove, My Gui Name,, (A_ScreenWidth/2)-(Width/2), (A_ScreenHeight/2)-(Height/2)

return

return
GuiCloseOK:
GuiControlGet, MyEdit
Gui, Destroy
return

GuiCloseCancel:
MyEdit:=""
Gui, Destroy
return


return
Esc::
Gui, Destroy
return

Place that code in your script anywhere you like. To call for the GUI add anywhere you want Gosub, StartGui. The content of Edit control you will get in MyEdit variable.

For example, if you want to call GUI by CTRL+ALT+z put that code in script anywhere you want:

return
!^z::
    Gosub, StartGui
return

Version 2 (with function):

GuiFunc(DefaultText)
{
    global MyEdit
    MyEdit:=""
    Gui, Add, Edit, x22 y19 w240 h120 vMyEdit, %DefaultText%
    Gui, Add, Button, x22 y179 w100 h30 gGuiCloseOk, &Ok
    Gui, Add, Button, x162 y179 w100 h30 gGuiCloseCancel, &Cancel
    ; Generated using SmartGUI Creator for SciTE
    Gui, Show, w286 h231, My Gui Name

    WinGetPos,,, Width, Height, My Gui Name
    WinMove, My Gui Name,, (A_ScreenWidth/2)-(Width/2), (A_ScreenHeight/2)-(Height/2)

    return

    return
    GuiCloseOK:
    GuiControlGet, MyEdit
    Gui, Destroy
    return

    GuiCloseCancel:
    MyEdit:=""
    Gui, Destroy
    return

}


return
Esc::
    Gui, Destroy
return

Place that code in your script anywhere you like. To call for the GUI, call GuiFunc(DefaultText) function with parameter that is text to display in Edit control by default. After running function global variable MyEdit is set to the content of Edit control. So you can use MyEdit variable anywhere outside the function. I know that you wanted function to return content of MyEdit variable but I tried it many ways with no success.

For example, put that code in your script anywhere you want. To call GUI press CTRL+ALT+z and to display content of MyEdit variable press CTRL+ALT+a :

return
!^z::
    DefaultText:= "Here is default text"
    GuiFunc(DefaultText)
return

return
!^a::
    MsgBox, %MyEdit%
return

For both versions, if you decide to rename Window Title My Gui Name then keep in mind that you need to rename it in 3 places for script to work properly.

Also, always use AutoHotkey and its documenatation from http://ahkscript.org/ (current uptodate version, new official website)! AutoHotkey and its documentation from autohotkey.com is outdated and you may have some problems using them!

Answer 5

Based on alpha bravo's answer and Thierry Dalon's answer.

• This is fixing the problem of either always having ErrorLevel=1 even when the user clicks Ok button or not having ErrorLevel=1 when user clicks the cancel button or exits/interrupts the input box.
• Also it uses WinWaitClose instead of while loop that seems better for me.
• Removes unneeded lines having GuiControl and SendMessage.

MultiLineInputBox(Text:="", Defualt:="", Caption:="Multi Line Input Box"){
  static
  ; futher helper variables
    local is_interrupted := ""     ; helper variable to know if submitted/interrupted       [tn1]
  Gui MultiLineInputBox:New,, % Caption
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Text, r1 w600  , % Text
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Edit, r10 w600 vMultiLineInputBoxContent, % DefaultText
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 gMultiLineInputBoxOK , &OK
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 x+10 gMultiLineInputBoxCancel, &Cancel
  
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Show
  Gui, MultiLineInputBox:+HwndMultiLineInputBox_hwnd
  WinWaitClose, ahk_id %MultiLineInputBox_hwnd%
  if (is_interrupted) {
    ErrorLevel := 1
  }
  return MultiLineInputBoxContent
  ;----------------------
  MultiLineInputBoxOK:
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox:Submit
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox:Destroy
  return
  ;---------------------- 
  MultiLineInputBoxCancel:
  MultiLineInputBoxClose:
  MultiLineInputBoxGuiEscape:
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Cancel
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox:Destroy
    is_interrupted := True
  return
}