How can I change the highlighted text color for a TextBox?

Question

WPF uses the system highlight color for painting the background of the selected text. I'd like to override it too.

I have a control template for textBox:

<ControlTemplate TargetType="TextBox">
    <Border Name="Border"
          CornerRadius="2" 
          Padding="2"
          Background="Transparent"
          BorderThickness="0" >
        <ScrollViewer Margin="0" x:Name="PART_ContentHost"/>
    </Border>
    <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
        <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
            <Setter TargetName="Border" Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource TextBoxDisabledBackgroundColor}"/>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource TextBoxDisabledForegroundColor}"/>
        </Trigger>
        <Trigger Property="IsReadOnly" Value="false">
            <Setter TargetName="Border" Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource TextBoxBackgroundColor}"/>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Black"/>
        </Trigger>
    </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
</ControlTemplate>

How can I change this template to override the highlighted text and background color?

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '11 at 09:21

8

In .NET 4 you can use the SelectionBrush property of the textbox.

Earlier versions require you to override system colours in-code, as there was no easily-exposed property for this - the textbox would just use the system-defined values.

answered Sep 14 '11 at 09:21

Dan Puzey

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Thank you! I use SelectionBrush to change the background color of the selected text. But I also need to change selected text color. Is there any posibilities to do this? – Diana Sep 15 '11 at 04:55
Is there a way to do this in Windows Forms? (Without using the WPF TextBox) – Momoro May 14 '20 at 03:42
@Momoro You should post a separate question to ask this. – Dan Puzey May 14 '20 at 14:17
Did not work in a resource dictionary... – Toni Nov 21 '21 at 15:00

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 14 '11 at 09:21

I did it with styles, e.g.:

  <Style x:Key="BoundedTextBox"  TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
    <Style.Triggers>
        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding IsAutoCalculated}" Value="True">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource MyBlue}" />
        </Trigger>
    </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

How can I change the highlighted text color for a TextBox?

2 Answers2

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