SftMask/DLL - Masked Edit Control
SftMask/DLL is a DLL-based masked edit control for the Windows™ operating system, offering easy to use data entry with edit masks, date input with a dropdown calendar, numeric input with a dropdown calculator, spin buttons and autocomplete.
Masked Edit Control
SftMask/DLL offers many features; from a simple edit control replacement to fully validated, formatted data entry with popup windows and visual error feedback.
- SftMask/DLL Wizard for designing masked edit controls and generating run-time code
- Edit masks built from literal characters and input field tokens (digits, letters, character sets, numeric fields, date and time fields)
- Numeric input fields with digit limits, fractional digits, minimum/maximum ranges, group formatting and leading zeros
- Date and time input using the user's locale formats, with automatic 2-digit year adjustment
- Dropdown calendar for date input, with configurable first day of week, date range, week numbers and bold dates
- Dropdown calculator for numeric input, invoked by simply typing an operator (+, -, * or /)
- Up-down buttons (spin buttons) for numeric, date and time fields
- Autocomplete with suggest and append modes, based on previously entered text or real file and folder names, with an optional persistent save file and programmatic seeding
- Built-in caption (left, top, right or bottom of the edit area) with independent font, colors, alignment and transparency
- Label displayed inside the edit area (e.g., a currency symbol or unit), with automatic locale-based currency placement
- Input validation with custom validation, error messages and an automatic error image (empty, invalid, required)
- Formatted text displayed while the control does not have the input focus
- Default text automatically applied to an empty control (including =Today, =Now and similar special values)
- Insert and overtype input modes, per control, per entry or application-global
- Entry selection behavior (select all, home, end) when the control receives the input focus
- Automatic advance to the next input field and next control as data is entered
- Clipboard support with or without literal characters, plus undo
- Password input positions that display a substitute character
- Themes support
- Complete implementation, not a sub/superclassed Windows edit control
- Support for C and C++ (MFC) using Visual Studio
- Support for Windows 10 and above, 64-bit, 32-bit and ARM64 applications
- Windows dark mode support, tracking the Windows "Choose your mode" setting automatically, including all popup windows (calendar, calculator, autocomplete)
- Windows High Contrast accessibility support
- Per-Monitor v2 DPI awareness with image and pixel scaling
- Built-in UI Automation provider for screen readers (Narrator, NVDA, JAWS)
- Documentation for AI coding assistants - an offline, full-text API reference formatted for large-language-model grounding, plus an AGENTS.md pointer file, so assistants such as Claude, GitHub Copilot and Cursor can answer questions and generate code against the complete API
SftMask/DLL Wizard Application
The SftMask/DLL Wizard allows you to design and test a masked edit control without any programming. The edit mask, edit styles, caption, label, validation, calendar, calculator, autocomplete, colors and other attributes are just a few of the items you can customize. Once you are satisfied with your masked edit control, the SftMask/DLL Wizard can even generate the required run-time code for C or C++ with MFC. So your programming effort is kept to a minimum.
Source Code
The source code for the MFC classes for masked edit control access is supplied. Any application that you develop can use SftMask/DLL royalty-free (some restrictions apply), as long as only the DLL is shipped with your application.
Languages Supported
SftMask/DLL supports C, C++ and other languages when using the standard SendMessage Windows API. The DLLs can be called using the definitions provided in the supplied header file. In addition, SftMask/DLL is shipped with class definitions which support the Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC).
Environments Supported
- 64-bit support when running Windows 10 and above with Intel 64-bit processors
- 32-bit applications on Windows 10 and above
- ARM64 support when running Windows 11 and above on ARM64 processors
UNICODE support is available for all platforms.
The product supports the same easy to use API on all platforms.
Royalties
Any application that you develop can use SftMask/DLL royalty-free in run-time only mode; design-time features are not available. Each user (developer) who needs access to any portion of the product must license a copy of SftMask/DLL.
AI / LLM Documentation
The complete SftMask/DLL documentation is also published in an AI/LLM-readable format, following the llms.txt convention. The index covering all Softel vdm products is at https://softelvdm.com/llms.txt.
The product installation includes an AGENTS.md file at the installation root, which points AI coding assistants at the product's online guide and API reference. The documentation is always read online, as it is updated between product releases.
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