Is it possible to remove the border of a standard C# Button ? I know that I could set the FlatStyle property to Flat and customize the FlatAppearance property to hide the border but I would prefer to use the Standard property to ensure that the control appears under all operating systems like a default Button. Did you have any suggestions how I can solve this issue? I am working with a Windows Forms Application.
You could use an image and make it clickable, that is one way to avoid the borders, but there are several options. Good luck!
If you are using windows forms and trying to implement Flat UI, Material UI, Metro-Looking controls, you're in hell. It is has limited properties for customizations unless you know how to work with Graphics and Animation. You'll have to use imagebox or picture box and dynamically change its image on different events.
I'll suggest WPF or Windows Presentation Foundation for a more customizable User Interface.
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If I set the opacity of the topmost form all the sub-controls are just as transparent as the form. The same goes for when using the transparencyKey, all the sub-controls have the same transparent color.
What I wish to accomplish it to have controls on the form and selectively choose which should inherit this property. Is it possible to do this even if it would require adding subforms to the form?
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated, since I couldn't find any solution that worked for me.
No, this is generally not possible, because it is not specific to c#, but the way Microsoft Windows works.
There are 2 ways to get proper transparency on Windows: WS_EX_LAYERED and WS_EX_NOREDIRECTIONBITMAP . Both are inaccessible using Winforms and for good reason: You will have to do any and all painting yourself, including the subcontrols.
WPF does however support this natively.
Create own TextBox, Button etc control as own control using User control in C# Windows application, is this good idea?
I wanted make consistency for through out the application. Suppose if I want to change the Textbox border color then all forms textbox updated with this changes. It's just an example.
Please suggest me.
I don't recommend using UserControl just for consistency. If application skinning is what you are after, look into WPF. It makes it relatively simple to skin an application (or even a window, or smaller groups)
Here is an article on skinning with WPF: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19782/Creating-a-Skinned-User-Interface-in-WPF
Another alternative, staying within Windows Forms, is creating a class that inherits from TextBox, and using that class throughout the application. The Factory pattern would work well here. You could even adapt it to multiple skins.
It's not a bad idea to provide custom controls that match your "User Experience" (UX). It really just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your program.
I'm making C# windows application ("Windows Forms Application") with default components, but I need to change default look of the form and all items on it (buttons, etc.) from classic windows style, to custom. How can I achieve it?
For example make buttons round, add transparency to some objects, make other objects with different shape, and so on.
It doesn't have to be customizable, but I just need to change it from default to something else. Maybe there's some components or something else that I can use? Or maybe there's additional GUI library that I can download and add to the project?
You didn't provide us with many details on how you want to customize the form.
You can change colors used on the form by setting the BackColor and ForeColor properties.
You can also apply background image to the form and use the TransparencyKey property in order to create a form with an irregular shape. More information about this method can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6k15y9et.aspx
Doing this manually and trying to have something looking nice takes waaay too much time. For start, look at this thread:
Best Free Controls for .NET
I'd like to know if is there a way to "skin" a Form and every widget used inside it. Images should be on background and other elements shall be setup accordingly.
In short, a way to implement a way to display the same Form in different flavors (i.e.: theme and eyecandy UI).
DevExpress makes a WinForms control suite with an excellent selection of skins.
Telerik also provides WinForms components with theme support. I've used their library and it works fine.
We have a collection of C# (.NET 2.0) applications that have custom dialog windows. When the user changes the default font size and resolution etc in Windows the edges of the form lose controls (they get pushed off the visible portion of the form) typically dropping off buttons from the bottom. This is problematic for us and will cause issues across other applications using the standard look-and-feel framework we are creating around these applications.
How would you make your entire application independent from windows font changes? How would you integrate this into multiple solutions?
Or better still how can one adapt the entire application to be able to adjust itself with the Windows appearance changes?
WinForms have the AutoScaleMode property, which can be set to either Font, DPI, Inherit, or None. The default is "Font" which, in my experience, doesn't always scale things right. You might try one of the other options (maybe "None" if you don't want your form to scale at all?)
As for making the entire application able to adjust itself, look into the "Inherit" option (you still need to set something other than "Inherit" on the parent or startup form of your application, though).
You could handle the SystemEvents.UserPreferenceChanged event in the Microsoft.Win32 namespace. The UserPreferenceChangedEventArgs parameter will have a Category of UserPreferenceCategory.Window when the system font changes. I think you'll then have to trigger a manual window layout and redraw in response to this event.