So I am trying to get either an NSPoint or NSRect corresponding with the location of a specific character in an NSTextView. This is what I have so far (that isn't working very well, the results seem kind of unpredictable.
NSRange theTextRange = [[theTextView layoutManager] glyphRangeForCharacterRange:[theTextStorage editedRange] actualCharacterRange:NULL]; NSRect theTextRect = [[theTextView layoutManager] boundingRectForGlyphRange:theTextRange inTextContainer:[theTextView textContainer]]; The rect returned by boundingRectForGlyphRange:inTextContainer: is in container coordinates. You need to adjust for this if you want to get the rect relative to the text view:
NSRange theTextRange = [[textView layoutManager] glyphRangeForCharacterRange:textRange actualCharacterRange:NULL]; NSRect layoutRect = [[textView layoutManager] boundingRectForGlyphRange:theTextRange inTextContainer:[textView textContainer]]; NSPoint containerOrigin = [textView textContainerOrigin]; layoutRect.origin.x += containerOrigin.x; layoutRect.origin.y += containerOrigin.y; You can use mouse down event by NSPoint & NSRect
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface ClickTextView : NSView { NSMutableArray *texts; NSPoint currentLocation; NSCell *cell; } @end #import "ClickTextView.h" @interface TextClip : NSObject { @public NSString *text; NSPoint location; } @end @implementation TextClip @end @implementation ClickTextView - (void)awakeFromNib { texts = [NSMutableArray new]; cell = [[NSTextFieldCell alloc] initTextCell: @""]; [cell setEditable: YES]; } - (void)drawRect:(NSRect)rect { NSRect frame = rect; [[NSColor whiteColor] set]; [NSBezierPath fillRect: rect]; for (TextClip *clip in texts) { [cell setStringValue: clip->text]; frame.origin = clip->location; [cell drawWithFrame: frame inView: self]; } } - (void)mouseDown: (NSEvent*)theEvent { currentLocation = [self convertPoint: [theEvent locationInWindow] fromView: nil]; NSText *fieldEditor = [[self window] fieldEditor: YES forObject: self]; [cell endEditing: fieldEditor]; [fieldEditor setString: @""]; [cell setStringValue: @""]; NSRect frame = {currentLocation, {400, 400}}; [cell editWithFrame: frame inView: self editor: fieldEditor delegate: self event: theEvent]; } - (BOOL)isFlipped { return YES; } - (void)textDidEndEditing: (NSNotification*)aNotification { NSText *text = [aNotification object]; TextClip *clip = [[TextClip alloc] init]; clip->text = [[text string] copy]; clip->location = currentLocation; [texts addObject: clip]; [cell endEditing: text]; [self setNeedsDisplay: YES]; } @end