All, I have a WinForms MDI control and in it I dock several child windows. When I first did this I managed (somehow) to get rid of the window list (shown above the tabbed forms below)
I am not talking about the double window menu (on the right) I know that this is due to a bug in the WinForms control and that if you add MdiChild elements in the Load event instead of the Constructor, this behaviour resolves itsef (see this post for details).
Here I am talking about the menu strip itself, I don't want it! How do I get rid of it? Any advice is much appreciated...
Note: I am adding MdiChild forms in the following way:
foreach (Form mdiChild in MdiChildForms)
{
mdiChild.MdiParent = this;
mdiChild.Show();
}
where MdiChildForms is a List<Form>.
Here is the possible solution:
public MainForm() {
IsMdiContainer = true;
InitializeComponent();
this.MainMenuStrip = new MenuStrip(); // create our own menu strip
this.MainMenuStrip.Visible = false;
}
Related
I am trying to insert a form inside another form. I used .Controls.Add(form) and it works. My problem is that I have to declare the owner and to do that I have to set the toplevel to true but if I set the toplevel to true I get stuck with the control.add bacause telling me that it is impossible to add a top level control to a control.
How can I do?
public void openChildForm(Form childForm)
{
if (activeForm != null) activeForm.Close();
activeForm = childForm;
childForm.TopLevel = true;
childForm.TopMost = true;
childForm.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
childForm.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
this.Controls.Add(childForm);
panelChildForm.Tag = childForm;
childForm.Owner = this;
childForm.BringToFront();
childForm.Show();
}
thankyou in advance,
Davide.
For me it's a bit strange what you are trying to do. A form is kind of window. Why would you add a window in another window? Don't you want to create a user control and to display that user control in your existing form?
There isn't enough information to go on from the original question you've posted, but it looks like you're trying to create the kind of functionality that a sidebar page menu might offer. In that situation, clicking on a button on the sidebar changes the window that's currently being displayed. Perhaps this question about sidebar navigation would relate to what you're saying? There's some information also available if you try searching "winforms sidebar navigation," such as this post about creating navigation in winforms, and there are a lot more linked from this question.
I'm just taking a guess at what you're trying to do here. Perhaps if you want to refine the answers you're getting, the original question should include a link to a github sample project, or at least a bit more of an explanation of what the target is.
It looks like you are working with WinForms.
Look at MDI Forms (Multiple-Document Interface Forms)
You can handle this by setting the parent form property IsMdiContainer = true
and then the child form childForm.MdiParent = parentForm;.
Here is a small example:
Add a menuStrip to the parentForm and set the parent form MainMenuStrip = menuStrip. Add a menu item and add some code to the menuStrip_ItemClicked event.
private void menuStrip_ItemClicked(object sender, ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ClickedItem.Text == "New Child")
ShowNewForm(sender, e);
}
private void ShowNewForm(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Form childForm = new Form();
childForm.MdiParent = this;
childForm.Text = "Window " + childFormNumber++;
childForm.Show();
}
You should end up with this behaviour.
If you want to access other forms within the same application you can use a loop and find a form using Application.OpenForms or find a form using either Application.OpenForms["form1"] or Application.OpenForms[0]
If you use MdiForms you can find child forms using parentMdiForm.MdiChildren
I am making a game using Windows Forms, and I feel that the easiest way to make different screens (Main Menu, Settings, Etc...) is using a separate form for each screen. I have looked up up many different ways to do this. Many people talk of using form2.Show(); this.Hide();, however, this creates a new popup window.
People have also suggested using this.IsMdiContainer = true; to create a new window inside of the current window, but this is also not the functionality I want.
EDIT: Another question, multiple-guis-one-window, explains slightly that this can be achieved using UserControls, but does not elaborate with any examples, or what I should do.
I want to completely replace the current form's functionality with that of a new form.
Is there a way to achieve this? If not, is there a good alternative?
As I understood, you want to keep the same form and change the data inside that form (to not get the effect that your form was closed and reopened again).
The problem is windows form does not support such thing directly (at least not in an optimal way), I would use another UI frameworks for that. However, if you want to stick though with windows forms, you may use GroupBox or Panel tools (available from windows form design tools in Visual studio). Here you can group your elements as required, and show/hide the group/panel as required.
That is one of the best available solution for windows form AFAIK.
You want to open child forms within main form then you should try this i have create it without any User Control.
I have manage one parent form and two child forms. child forms should be open within parent form.
frmMain(Parent Form)
Set frmMain Property as Following
WindowState = System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Maximized
I have take 3 panel in frmMain window.
pnlMenu (For Display Menu)
Set pnlMenu.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Top property
Set height of this panel as you require.
pnlMain (For Display Child Forms)
Set pnlMain.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill property
pnlFooter (For Footer Section)
Set pnlFooter.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Bottom; property
Set height of this panel as you require.
I have set menubar in pnlMenu(Click on that menu for display child form in pnlMain)
frmMain.cs
public void BindFormIntoMainForm(Form Main)
{
Main.TopLevel = false;
Main.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
Main.AutoScroll = true;
pnlMain.Controls.Clear();
pnlMain.Controls.Add(Main);
pnlMain.Refresh();
Main.Show();
}
private void childToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
frmChildForm1 ChildForm1 = new frmChildForm1();
BindFormIntoMainForm(ChildForm1);
}
private void childForm2ToolStripMenuItem1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
frmChildForm2 ChildForm2 = new frmChildForm2();
BindFormIntoMainForm(ChildForm2);
}
BindFormIntoMainForm method responsible for display child form in main window.
frmChildForm1 & frmChildForm2(ChildForm)
Set both form Property as Following
FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None
Now when you click on Child Form 1 Menu then display following output:
when you click on Child Form 2 Menu then display following output:
I think it can be helpful for you.
I have a very basic out the box mdiparent which has a number of mdichildren and a menu item. Each button on the menu item hides all the forms and then shows the one respective to that button.
When I do it this way:
//dontHide is the Form we want to show.
for(int i = 0; i < this.MdiChildren.Length; i++)
{
if (this.MdiChildren[i] != dontHide)
{
this.MdiChildren[i].Visible = false;
}
}
dontHide.Visible = true;
Switching forms causes the new form opened to be positioned bit lower and to the right of the old form, but clicking the menu item for the currently displayed form does nothing (as expected).
But, when I do this:
//dontHide is the Form we want to show.
for(int i = 0; i < this.MdiChildren.Length; i++)
{
this.MdiChildren[i].Visible = false;
}
dontHide.Visible = true;
Even clicking the menu item for the currently visible form causes it to shift to the lower right, same as opening a new form. Why is that?
Edit:
I've also noticed when centering the form and then displaying it (so you don't risk having someone glimpse it right before it is moved), setting visible to true completely resets any centering I've done.
This is caused by an obscure implementation detail in Winforms. The native MDI support built into Windows does not support hiding child windows. Winforms works around this restriction by destroying the child window when you set its Visible property to false. And re-creating it when you set it back to true.
This can have various side-effects, the state of the native window is lost when this happens of course. Winforms has fairly decent support for restoring the window again from its properties. But one thing it doesn't do is recreating the window in the same location. So you'll see it getting recreated in the location that new MDI child windows get, staggered from the previous window. Whether that was an oversight or intentional isn't that clear to me, 95% odds for the latter.
Otherwise simple to work around, you can assign the Location property yourself to get it back where it was:
var loc = dontHide.Location;
dontHide.Visible = true;
dontHide.Location = loc;
Or just set the MDI child form's StartPosition to Manual.
I want to make a panel contain a MDI form. I want to put MainWin into a Panel (progPanel) that is in another form of DesktopApp. I have used this C# Panel As MDI Container
I cannot recode the MainWin without MDI because that would take forever and I would lose some functionality.
Canvas.MainWin canvasForm = new Canvas.MainWin();
MdiClientPanel mdiClientPan = new MdiClientPanel();
canvasForm.MdiParent = mdiClientPan.MdiForm;
progPanel.Controls.Add(mdiClientPan);
public class MdiClientPanel : Panel
{
private Form mdiForm;
private MdiClient ctlClient = new MdiClient();
public MdiClientPanel()
{
base.Controls.Add(this.ctlClient);
}
public Form MdiForm
{
get
{
if (this.mdiForm == null)
{
this.mdiForm = new Form();
//set the hidden ctlClient field which is used to determine if the form is an MDI form
System.Reflection.FieldInfo field = typeof(Form).GetField("ctlClient", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance);
field.SetValue(this.mdiForm, this.ctlClient);
}
return this.mdiForm;
}
}
}
I get the error Form cannot be both an MDI child and MDI parent on line canvasForm.MdiParent = mdiClientPan.MdiForm;. I have tried using DesktopApp.ActiveForm.MdiParent and changing Form in MdiClientPanel to Canvas.MainWin, but nothing is working. Any suggestions?
You cannot do this.
The error message should have been clear enough. So should have been the answer to the other question that you linked.
MDI has been considered obsolete for many years now. Users find it excessively confusing, and there are much better paradigms for unifying multiple windows within a single container. Consider, for example, a tab control. Users are already familiar with this, since every browser in existence uses tabs to display multiple web pages.
Yes, rewriting the application to avoid MDI will take time. But it is your only option, because your idea won't work. And there's an additional benefit to the user.
To be honest, I'm not really sure why you would want an MDI form inside of a panel in the first place. Consider a floating toolbox window as an alternative.
I have a Windows Forms application that opens MDI child forms. When I select those forms, I need to set or render its windowstate to Maximized. The problem is, when I navigate between the open forms, it reverts back to the normal window state, and when I set the window state to maximized again, it shows the transition from normal to maximized state and it doesn't look nice.
How can a Windows application be created that have an MDI parent form that opens many MDI childs in maximized window state?
Here's an answer based on using the MDI "Parent Form and Child Form paradigm," with the following assumptions :
you have a MenuStrip control 'Dock = 'Top on your MDIParentForm, and you've implemented the automatic MDI &Window menu handler as described in : How to: Create an MDI Window List with MenuStrip
you are creating new child forms that :
a. do not have a MaximizeBox, MinimizeBox, etc., but may have ControlBox (for closing them)
b. these child forms may be resizable or not : we won't consider the implications of that here.
You want these MDIChildForms to display maximized in the MDIParent Form, but not to obscure the MDIParentForm's menu.
Okay : assuming you have all your child Forms fully designed, "waiting in the wings" : we might see some code like this in your MDIParentForm code :
// create instances of your child forms
Form2 f2 = new Form2();
Form3 f3 = new Form3();
Form4 f4 = new Form4();
Form5 f5 = new Form5();
private void MDIParentForm1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
f2.Text = "subForm1";
f3.Text = "subForm2";
f4.Text = "subForm3";
f5.Text = "subForm4";
f2.MdiParent = this;
f3.MdiParent = this;
f4.MdiParent = this;
f5.MdiParent = this;
f2.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f3.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f4.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f5.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f2.Show();
f3.Show();
f4.Show();
f5.Show();
}
At this point, the dock style 'Fill applied to the child forms will make them full-screen, and keep them from obscuring the MDIParentForm menu : and the menu will allow you to auto-select which one is frontmost.
Now, if you want to do fancier stuff : like resizing the child Forms, tiling them, cascading them. You are going to have to change the 'Dock property of these child windows : and then you can make use of the built-in MDI paradigm window arranging facilities as described here : How to: Arrange MDI Child Forms
And if you want to create multiple instances of one type of pre-defined child form : How to Create MDI Child Forms ... see the example on how to use a 'New menu entry : may prove useful.
If you want the window state to always be maximized, I'd recommend switching away from an MDI Form. A TabControl may work better, in that case.
MDI forms have quite a few usability issues, which is why they are not commonly used anymore, and tend to be replaced with other controls/options.
After reading Reeds answer and especially your comment:
problem with tabcontrol is, i have a
lot of controls used per child form
Maybe this will help:
Don't put your controls into a Winform. Instead encapsulate them into a UserControl (maybe it already works by changing your inheritance from Form to UserControl).
Now put every UserControl on it's own TabPage and set its Dock property to Fill. Now you are able to change each UserControl on it's own, without any interference to another control on another TabPage (as far as you don't built in any connection).
If you intend to give up on MDI, you could have a look at docking frameworks like WeifenLuo or DigitalRune. These are free, for other options you can have a look here: http://windowsclient.net/downloads/folders/controlgallery/tags/Windows+Forms+Docking+Windows/default.aspx
EDIT:
If I remember well, DigitalRune allows the usage of windows forms as containers for docked content so the migration effort would be smaller.