How can I center a picture box within an MDI Windows form?????

[Joey Picerno]

I need to center a picture box in the exact middle of my windows MDI Parent form. Can anyone tell me the easiest way or best way to do this through code. Thank you!

[Gregory Gadow]

The client area of an MDI form is an ordinary control, although it is not directly exposed by the form. This is a method I have in Class Toolbox:

Public Shared Function GetMdiClient(ByRef MdiForm As Form) As MdiClient
    Dim Client As MdiClient = Nothing

    For Each C As Control In MdiForm.Controls
        Client = TryCast(C, MdiClient)
        If Client IsNot Nothing Then Exit For
    Next

    Return Client
End Function

With that, you can then use this code:

    Dim MC As MdiClient = Toolbox.GetMdiClient(MyMainForm)
    If MC IsNot Nothing Then
        PictureBox1.Top = (MC.ClientRectangle.Height \\ 2) - (PictureBox1.Height \\ 2)
        PictureBox1.Left = (MC.ClientRectangle.Width \\ 2) - (PictureBox1.Width \\ 2)
    End If

Using this technique, you can do things like change the background color of the MDI client area. MdiClient exposes a BackgroundImage property, which might allow you to dispense with the PictureBox entirely. Edited to fix another bug :sigh:

modified on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:41 PM

[Joey Picerno]

I already am using a backgroundimage with the backgroundimage property. I just need another image ( a logo ) to overlay the background image and always be in the center of the MDIForm. I am about to attempt to try your method, I appreciate your response and I will let you know if it works or not. Thanks again!

[Joey Picerno]

I tried what you wrote and for some reason it isnt liking this line of code :

Dim MC As MdiClient = clsGetMDI.GetMdiClient()

I get a squiggly under clsGetMDI.GetMdiClient. I changed the name of the class by the way from toolbox to clsGetMDI. It is saying argument not specifyed for the parameter frmMainMDI in the public function getmdiclient etc. frmMainMDI is the name of my MDI Parent form. I have the exact same code you do except I replaced MDIForm with the name of my actual MDI form and I have a different class name where the function is located, that is it. Other than that I am using the exact same code. Any thoughts????

[Gregory Gadow]

You need to pass in the the form. Sorry about that.

[Joey Picerno]

Ok gotcha, it is working fine now. Thank you for your help. You saved me a major headache... Thanks!!!!