Custom cut/copy action bar for EditText that shows text selection handles

Above solution is good if you want to customize the options in action bar. But if you want to override action bar copy/Paste etc, below is the code...

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    EditText editText;
    private ClipboardManager myClipboard;
    private ClipData myClip;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        myClipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText3);

        myClipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText3);
        editText.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new Callback() {

            @Override
            public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub

            }

            @Override
            public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                return true;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                switch (item.getItemId()) {
                case android.R.id.copy:
                    int min = 0;
                    int max = editText.getText().length();
                    if (editText.isFocused()) {
                        final int selStart = editText.getSelectionStart();
                        final int selEnd = editText.getSelectionEnd();

                        min = Math.max(0, Math.min(selStart, selEnd));
                        max = Math.max(0, Math.max(selStart, selEnd));
                    }
                    // Perform your definition lookup with the selected text
                    final CharSequence selectedText = editText.getText()
                            .subSequence(min, max);
                    String text = selectedText.toString();

                    myClip = ClipData.newPlainText("text", text);
                    myClipboard.setPrimaryClip(myClip);
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Text Copied",
                            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    // Finish and close the ActionMode
                    mode.finish();
                    return true;
                case android.R.id.cut:
                    // add your custom code to get cut functionality according
                    // to your requirement
                    return true;
                case android.R.id.paste:
                    // add your custom code to get paste functionality according
                    // to your requirement
                    return true;

                default:
                    break;
                }
                return false;
            }
        });         
    }    
}

I figured out the answer to my own question; TextView (and therefore EditText) has a method setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback() which should be used instead of startActionMode(). Using this enables customisation of the menu used by TextView for text selection. Sample code:

bodyView.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback(new StyleCallback());

where StyleCallback customises the text selection menu by removing Select All and adding some styling actions:

class StyleCallback implements ActionMode.Callback {

    public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onCreateActionMode");
        MenuInflater inflater = mode.getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.style, menu);
        menu.removeItem(android.R.id.selectAll);
        return true;
    }

    public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
        return false;
    }

    public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) {
        Log.d(TAG, String.format("onActionItemClicked item=%s/%d", item.toString(), item.getItemId()));
        CharacterStyle cs;
        int start = bodyView.getSelectionStart();
        int end = bodyView.getSelectionEnd();
        SpannableStringBuilder ssb = new SpannableStringBuilder(bodyView.getText());

        switch(item.getItemId()) {

        case R.id.bold:
            cs = new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD);
            ssb.setSpan(cs, start, end, 1);
            bodyView.setText(ssb);
            return true;

        case R.id.italic:
            cs = new StyleSpan(Typeface.ITALIC);
            ssb.setSpan(cs, start, end, 1);
            bodyView.setText(ssb);
            return true;

        case R.id.underline:
            cs = new UnderlineSpan();
            ssb.setSpan(cs, start, end, 1);
            bodyView.setText(ssb);
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {
    }
}

The XML for the menu additions is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/italic"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:icon="@drawable/italic"
          android:title="Italic"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/bold"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:icon="@drawable/bold"
          android:title="Bold"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/underline"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:icon="@drawable/underline"
          android:title="Underline"/>
</menu>