A rich edit control is a window in which the user can enter, edit, format, print, and save text. The text can be assigned character and paragraph formatting, and can include embedded COM objects. Rich edit controls provide a programming interface for formatting text. However, an application must implement any user interface components necessary to make formatting operations available to the user.
Rich edit controls support almost all of the messages and notification messages used with multiline edit controls. Thus, applications that already use edit controls can be easily changed to use rich edit controls. Additional messages and notifications enable applications to access the functionality unique to rich edit controls. For information about edit controls, see Edit Controls.