AutoHotKey: InputBox with multiline input

Question

In AutoHotKey, I want to have something like InputBox except that the text input is multiline. (i.e. like a textarea).

I want there to be two buttons, "Ok" and "Cancel", and I want them both to have accelerators. I want this code to be in the form of a function that I can call from other hotkeys to get multiline user input whenever I want. I want to be able to set the default text shown when the dialog is shown. I want the function to return null or empty string if the cancel button was pressed. I want the Esc key to cause the dialog to be closed as if the cancel button was pressed (and not exit the entire script). I want the dialog to show in the center of the screen, and to use the font that Windows usually uses for dialogs.

Answer 1

try this

!1::
MsgBox % MultiLineInputBox("Hello World:", "stuff, more stuff", "Custom Caption")
return

MultiLineInputBox(Text:="", Default:="", Caption:="Multi Line Input Box"){
    static
    ButtonOK:=ButtonCancel:= false
    if !MultiLineInputBoxGui{
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Text, r1 w600  , % Text
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Edit, r10 w600 vMultiLineInputBox, % Default
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 gMultiLineInputBoxOK , &OK
        Gui, MultiLineInputBox: add, Button, w60 x+10 gMultiLineInputBoxCancel, &Cancel
        MultiLineInputBoxGui := true
    }
    GuiControl,MultiLineInputBox:, MultiLineInputBox, % Default
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Show,, % Caption
    SendMessage, 0xB1, 0, -1, Edit1, A
    while !(ButtonOK||ButtonCancel)
        continue
    if ButtonCancel
        return
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Submit, NoHide
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Cancel
    return MultiLineInputBox
    ;----------------------
    MultiLineInputBoxOK:
    ButtonOK:= true
    return
    ;---------------------- 
    MultiLineInputBoxGuiEscape:
    MultiLineInputBoxCancel:
    ButtonCancel:= true
    Gui, MultiLineInputBox: Cancel
    return
}

Answer 2

You can keep it pretty short:
(tested and works)

MultiLineInput(Text:="Waiting for Input") {
    Global MLI_Edit
    Gui, Add, Edit, vMLI_Edit x2 y2 w396 r4
    Gui, Add, Button, gMLI_OK x1 y63 w199 h30, &OK
    Gui, Add, Button, gMLI_Cancel x200 y63 w199 h30, &Cancel
    Gui, Show, h94 w400, %Text%
    Goto, MLI_Wait
    MLI_OK:
        GuiControlGet, MLI_Edit
    MLI_Cancel:
    GuiEscape:
        ReturnNow := True
    MLI_Wait:
        While (!ReturnNow)
            Sleep, 100
    Gui, Destroy
    Return %MLI_Edit%
}

MsgBox % MultiLineInput("Tell me 5 things you like.")

This is what it could look like:

And here is what it returns printed in a MsgBox: Click