Symptoms
In many applications there is a function to search and highlight keywordsin a text window. The RichTextBox control in Visual Basic can be madeto provide this functionality, as shown in the sample code below.
Resolution
Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.Place a Command button and a RichTextBox on Form1. Set the Text propertyof the RichTextBox to “This is an example of finding text in a richtext box.”Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

Option ExplicitPrivate Sub Command1_Click()HighlightWords RichTextBox1, “text”, vbRedEnd SubPrivate Function HighlightWords(rtb As RichTextBox, _sFindString As String, _lColor As Long) _As IntegerDim lFoundPos As Long’Position of first character’of matchDim lFindLength As Long’Length of string to findDim lOriginalSelStart As LongDim lOriginalSelLength As LongDim iMatchCount As Integer’Number of matches’Save the insertion points current location and lengthlOriginalSelStart = rtb.SelStartlOriginalSelLength = rtb.SelLength’Cache the length of the string to findlFindLength = Len(sFindString)’Attempt to find the first matchlFoundPos = rtb.Find(sFindString, 0, , rtfNoHighlight)While lFoundPos > 0iMatchCount = iMatchCount + 1rtb.SelStart = lFoundPos’The SelLength property is set to 0 as’soon as you change SelStartrtb.SelLength = lFindLengthrtb.SelColor = lColor’Attempt to find the next matchlFoundPos = rtb.Find(sFindString, _lFoundPos + lFindLength, , rtfNoHighlight)Wend’Restore the insertion point to its original’location and lengthrtb.SelStart = lOriginalSelStartrtb.SelLength = lOriginalSelLength’Return the number of matchesHighlightWords = iMatchCountEnd Function Choose Start from the Run menu, or press the F5 key to start theproject. Click the Command button and you should see that bothoccurrences of the word “text” are now shown in red.