Make TextBox uneditable

Question

I want to make some TextBoxes on my form uneditable, but I want the text to be clear (black not gray) and that's why I do not want to use

myTextBox.Enabled = false;

Somehow I want it to be disabled but with non-gray fore-color.

Does anyone have any clue?

why -1 -1 -1? I see, the answer is one word, OK, but I really didn't know that one word. Shouldn't I ask? — Mahdi Tahsildari, Jan 30 '13 at 06:40
:) you're right @AppDeveloper, I'm sure everyone has some dark points which need to be brightened. Thanks for your kind reply. Good luck. — Mahdi Tahsildari, Jan 30 '13 at 06:47
@UthistranS. - what if later he needs the input from user in the same box ? — Parimal Raj, Jan 30 '13 at 06:48
@UthistranS. not a good suggestion my friend, that way I'll lose the fixed location and size and also the text wrapping mode. A label streches to it's content length, but a textbox has a fixed size and shows the text in multilines (wrapping behaviour) but label needs more code to maintain this behaviour. — Mahdi Tahsildari, Jan 30 '13 at 06:48
Possible duplicate of [How to change the font color of a disabled TextBox?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/276179/how-to-change-the-font-color-of-a-disabled-textbox) — Christoph Brückmann, Jan 26 '17 at 10:54

score 132 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 17 '15 at 04:35

132

Using the TextBox.ReadOnly property

TextBox.ReadOnly = true;

For a Non-Grey background you can change the TextBox.BackColor property to SystemColors.Window Color

textBox.BackColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Window;

When this property is set to true, the contents of the control cannot be changed by the user at runtime. With this property set to true, you can still set the value of the Text property in code. You can use this feature instead of disabling the control with the Enabled property to allow the contents to be copied and ToolTips to be shown.

edited Jan 17 '15 at 04:35

jgawrych

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answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:35

Parimal Raj

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The property is ```TextBox.IsReadOnly``` for WPF .NET 4.5.2, Visual Studio 2015, Update 3 (it says Version 14.0.25431.01 Update 3). – ecth May 31 '17 at 12:15

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:36

Use the ReadOnly property on the TextBox.

myTextBox.ReadOnly = true;

But Remember: TextBoxBase.ReadOnly Property

When this property is set to true, the contents of the control cannot be changed by the user at runtime. With this property set to true, you can still set the value of the Text property in code. You can use this feature instead of disabling the control with the Enabled property to allow the contents to be copied and ToolTips to be shown.

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:40

6

You can try using:

textBox.ReadOnly = true;
textBox.BackColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Window;

The last line is only neccessary if you want a non-grey background color.

answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:40

Alina B.

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 03 '17 at 11:37

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Just set in XAML:

        <TextBox IsReadOnly="True" Style="{x:Null}" />

So that text will not be grayed-out.

answered Apr 03 '17 at 11:37

Jan Abramek

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:38

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If you want your TextBox uneditable you should make it ReadOnly.

answered Jan 30 '13 at 06:38

Marius Bancila

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 13 '16 at 23:22

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If you want to do it using XAML set the property isReadOnly to true.

answered Dec 13 '16 at 23:22

A. Wolf

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This is a off-topic answer for this question. Because this quesion is ask about winform not WPF. – Mr. Squirrel.Downy Dec 19 '22 at 01:17

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 28 '19 at 05:04

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This is for GridView.

 grid.Rows[0].Cells[1].ReadOnly = true;

edited Feb 28 '19 at 05:04

4b0

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answered Feb 28 '19 at 04:57

Dilip Kumar Choudhary

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score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 25 '20 at 04:46

-1

Enabled="false" in aspx page

answered Aug 25 '20 at 04:46

Suraj Pandey

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Hi Suraj, welcome to Stackoverflow. Thanks for your effort. My question is actually about Windows Forms Applications. Tags help us put our questions in the proper category. – Mahdi Tahsildari Aug 25 '20 at 05:15

Make TextBox uneditable

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