is it possible to do this?

tonyonlinux

to make mass data entry easier so i can put my add form over the top of my excel sheet that contains the data i wish to enter. Is there a way to do the following without it minimizing both. I understand the whole parent/child relationship of the forms but i was wondering if i could somehow do this because I have noticed programs like yahoo and so forth allow one form to be minimized while the other is maximized. Anyway here is what I'm trying...

private void Add_Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
AddRecord addRecordForm = new AddRecord();
addRecordForm.Owner = this;
this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized; //minimize the main form
addRecordForm.ShowDialog(this); // load up the add form

        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal; //when the add form closes return main form to normal size
        LoadData();
    }

it minimizes but they both minimize instead of only the parent minimizing. i even tried putting in the constructor of the addrecord this.windowstate = formwindowstate.normal; and that had no effect.

Saksida Bojan

I have tried compile example into .NET 2.0/3.0/3.5. I am using Windows 7 and didn't encounter your problem. Did you accedently changed windowstato of your AddRecord Form?

Luc Pattyn

tonyonlinux wrote:

addRecordForm.Owner = this; this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;

tonyonlinux wrote:

it minimizes but they both minimize instead of only the parent minimizing

Does it really? Have you read the documentation[^]. Which is what you always should do when running into a problem. :|

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Dan Mos

here's a working example: In the Main form/container, on the add click do something like this:

        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
        this.ShowInTaskbar = false;

        Form2 f = new Form2();
        f.Owner = this;
        f.Show();

        //this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;

and on the LoadDataForm on the form closing event do something like this:

private void Form2_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
this.Owner.ShowInTaskbar = true;
this.Owner.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
}

tonyonlinux

thanks that worked.

tonyonlinux

i was wondering something since the documentation states if the parent minimizes so does the child. (this was really my original question) because i had read this in the documentation BEFORE asking. is it possible to make the add form an owner of itself? i tried and it said I can't. Basically what I'm trying to achieve all of the parent/child stuff asside is the following. I guess what i want is the form to not be a child but simply another parent (per say). I'm trying to make it where when i click on the addbutton up pops the addrecord form. and the main form minimizes. as documented and seen and so forth both will minimize. sure i can go down there and click on the thing to open it back up since the mainform is hidden until close(that part i like) but i want the child form return to normal state. is there some kinda method that you can use on the form like you do controls as form1.visible = false or hidden = true or something like that then change that on the form2 closeevent ?

Dan Mos

sure you can trick the owner. But a better solution is to not own the dataform. Something like:

private btn1Click(object sender, EventArgs e){
this.Hide();
DataForm df = new DataForm();
df.ShowDialog();

//now show back your main form
this.Show();
}