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Custom UserControls automatically resizes when hosted on a WinForm form

I've a problem with my WinForm application.
I'm using a Tab Control where i put a custom usercontrol in every tab panel (tab panel 1 contains a custom usercontrol, tab panel 2 an another one, etc).
My custom usercontrols have specified size, but when I add my custom usercontrol to an another usercontrol or when I run the application, them are bigger than in design mode...it seems that the hosting Form zooms hosted usercontrols, but I have no idea why this happens..
Another problem is that distances between items are corrupted.
Here is an example:
Three combos (hosted in a hosted usercontrol) in design mode:
And the same three combos when I'm running the program or when I simply add
my custom usercontrol to a window/form:
As you can see they are bigger and the distance between them changes...
This is happening on most of hosted controls (but not all), without a logic...
What can it be? I'm optimizing the application to run on specified-size screens but I can't do this with these problems...
Thank you!

I've found an another user with the same problem only now :
Sizing issues while adding a .Net UserControl to a TabPage
The problem is on a property not visible in design mode: you have to change the property AutoScaleMode to None, on usercontrol's designer:
this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.None;

Very late reply, but hopefully this will help someone out there who's run into this same problem and couldn't find a solution, like I just did.
What worked for me was to set AutoScaleMode to Inherit in the user control's designer.
AutoSize was set to false, though I don't know if that had any effect.

Create controls dynamically or create controls in a side form? C# winforms

I have a form full of controls, and there is no room for other controls. On the bottom of the form I have a panel with some controls on it.
My goal is that when a certain button is clicked, the original panel on the bottom will be replaced with another panel that contains controls which could be created before the program starts, meaning these controls in the panel do not need to be created dynamically. The replace action would be executed by setting each panel's visible field to it's matched value.
I have thought of two ways of doing this - either creating the new panel (and it's controls) dynamically and adding it to the form instead of the original, or creating the new panel in another form and when the relevant button is clicked the panel being taken from that form and added to the required form (by creating an instance of the new form and making it's panel's modifier public). The "side form"'s purpose is only to create that panel, it has no functionality of it's own.
The advantages of creating the new panel dynamically:
There is no need to create a zero-functionality form.
The advantages of creating the new panel in a side form:
It's very clear which controls are added to the new panel and their positions.
It's very easy to set the location and other fields of the controls in the new panel.
Which way is better?
Thanks!

Have you considered TabControl? That seems a good fit for your needs. Other controls I can think of are StackPanel (Can be fairly easily done for Windows Forms) or OutlookBar like control (again a user control).
Simplest and quickest way seems to be TabControl.
Edit:
SideForm is a different windows form I suppose. So if you are thinking to make controls public and then change their visibility etc, please don't. Use delegates to handle SideForm's events in MainForm.
As you mentioned, there is no room for more controls, I would suggest more screens rather than just one. Having said that I do not know much about your current UI design and functionality so it's up to you.
I would say having the controls hidden and just playing with the Visibility is fine. This means that you do not have to worry about positioning of controls, anchoring and docking at runtime. The problem could well be loading of form. Having huge number of controls having a lot of data associated with them may slow things down.

IMO the best way would be to utilise user controls for this purpose. Simply create one user control per panel you wish to show/hide and place your controls inside. This way you will have both: the designer and the "extra form" you wanted.

Hosting a Form's content inside of another Form?

I need to host a Windows Form inside another Form, like an iframe in HTML. However, using a Multi-Document Interface causes the Form's window controls to be rendered as well. I need only the content of the Form to be rendered. How would I do this?

Look into UserControls. They will accomplish what you want.

I have an application like this.
For the contained form, I set .TopLevel = false, the formBorderStyle to none and I also set the Dock property to Fill.
In my parent form, I have a split panel and I just add my contained form to the the panel I want it in.
I don't remember exactly why I didn't want to go with UserControls any more, it was years ago. I seem to recall having a reason though. Some of my contained forms use UserControls.

Why don't you make each game a separate UserControl?

Inconsistent behaviour when attempting to highlight C# TextBox

I'm building a C# WinForms program, and my textboxes do not allow the user to highlight the text consistently throughout the program.
In some places, the highlighting works normally: you type something in the box, click and drag over some text, and it highlights where you dragged.
In other places, clicking and dragging does not select the text. The only way to do it is by double clicking on the text.
I haven't changed any default properties of these textboxes or messed with any event listeners. I placed brand new textboxes in different places, and they behave differently.
I'm wondering if it has something to do with the properties of the Form the TextBox is contained in, since it seems to appear that either all textboxes in a particular form work, or none do. However, as far as I can tell the properties look to be the same across the board, and I don't ever remember changing anything.
To me it seems like it's happening randomly. I can't find any information on the topic. Does anybody have any idea what I'm talking about?
EDIT: Ok, I figured out where the problem lies, but I still don't know how to fix it.
It happens only in forms which have been added to a SplitContainer in my main window like so:
myForm.TopLevel = false;
this.splitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add(myForm);
myForm.Show();
EDIT 2: I now know that this is the same issue encountered here: Windows Forms: Unable to Click to Focus a MaskedTextBox in a Non TopLevel Form . The accepted answer isn't useful to me, and the other answers seem impractical, since I'd have to add event handlers to every single textbox...

I had the same problem today. I tried changing TopLevel as others have suggested. This didn't work. Somewhere along my search I saw a suggestion to create a click event for the text box and use it to force focus on the control. This made no difference either. There were no events that should intercept and block a click event. It was just an MDI child with a few controls on it stuffed inside a panel on a split container. I couldn't highlight text in textboxes or textbox-derived controls though.
Turns out the solution was to switch the order of childform.Show() and panel.Controls.Add(childform). If you add the child form before it is shown, you apparently cause this bug.

I'm a little perplexed at what you're trying to accomplish. I'm used to using a user control if I want to embed something on a SplitPanel, and using an MDI form if I want child forms.
Do either of these approaches work for you, and if not, can you explain why not/what you are trying to accomplish?
Thanks!
James
* Edit *
You can add a panel (regular panel, not a split panel) to an MDI parent form and dock it to the left. Add whatever you currently have in the left panel of the SplitContainer to this left-docked panel, instead. Now you can instantiate forms, set them as children to the main MDI parent, and have all the window functionality you're looking for... You can maximize them, and they will fill the right-side of the MDI parent; you can pick cascade or tile from the window menu, etc.
If you want to let the user dynamically resize the left panel, drop a splitter panel into the right-hand portion of the main MDI form container; it will dock left by default, and show up to the immediate right of the panel. Now when you run, you can drag the border of the panel to resize.
Remember, an MDI form is like any other form... you can add any control you want to its surface, and .NET is pretty smart about how it incorporates the child windows.
If you're still not sure of what I'm trying to describe, I'll try to find somewhere I can drop a sample project... because everything is really done in the designer, there's not really any code I can show you. Here's the code for creating a form as an MDI child (running from within the MDI parent):
MyForm frm = new MyForm();
frm.MdiParent = this;
frm.Show();
That's all there is to it.
HTH!
James

Add Inherited Controls to a Panel

I have a base form with two buttons (e.g. OK and Cancel). I want to use a TableLayoutPanel and have the two buttons in it. Child forms should be able to add more controls to the table as well as modify its layout itself via the designer.
So far I can't get this to work. I have tried the following:
Adding the TableLayoutPanel to the child form. Designer refuses to add the two buttons to the panel.
Adding the TableLayoutPanel in the base form. Can't add controls to the panel from the child form.

In the base form you have to set the property Modifiers = Protected for the TableLayoutPanel and any other control you want to change in the child forms.

The reason why you cant edit your TableLayoutPanel in the derived class is because you are attempting to use a feature of WinForms called 'visual inheritance'. Unfortunately, the TableLayoutPanel does not support visual inheritance:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171689.aspx (read at the bottom of the page)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1z3efhd2.aspx
This is why it appears blocked in the inherited controls. I am not sure why they do not support this feature, but I have recently come across the same problem and ended up having to solve the problem another way.

Since this hasn't received an answer since almost over a year and WindowsForms is slowly losing against WPF, the answer seems to be "just don't do it".