Form Layout

[vhassan]

Hi I am using Visual Studio 2005. I want to layout my Form automatically when I restore or maximize form window. The controls on the form like groupbox containing many other controls should adjust according to size of form. Question: 1. How I can implement this? What is best way? 2. Should I do it using code. That is by changing locations of controls? I used Anchor property but it doesn't worked for me. Please tell. Thanks

[Christian Graus]

The Anchor and Dock properties are how it's done. otherwise, you need to write a ton of code in the form resized event to do it manually.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Depends on what you want to do. If you want your controls to change size based on the size and resolution of the screen then there used to be a number of articles around but they were all a kludge. I believe WPF may be the too; for this sort of thing. What I usually do is have 2 classes of form, fixedtoolwindow and sizeabletoolwindow. Fixed is for any dialog without a datalist, it does not make sense for the user to change from my setup. Sizeable is for any form with a list control. I use a combination of panels, docking and anchor to achieve a form where the list control is docked to fill and therefore expans when the use changes the form layout.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

[dan sh]

Put the controls in the TableLayoutPanel cells. Set the column and row dimensions for the TableLayoutPanel in "%" (You can also give absolute values wherever suitable). Anchor the TableLayoutPanel to all the sides of the form. And all the controls to all four sides of the cell they are in. This will give resizing effect to the controls when the form is resized. Hope this helps.