We Keep Coding

How do I create an invisible checkbox that remains clickable?

I'm creating an application in Forms for very non tech-savvy users. In doing so, I'm attempting to keep some more complicated buttons and menus hidden in the main program unless an invisible checkbox is checked- which only the QA/Dev team would need to use for troubleshooting.
I've attempted to use checkBox1.Hide() followed by checkBox1.Show on click as well as on CheckedChanged, however when the checkbox is hidden or has visibile set to false, the checkbox is unable to be checked. I've also looked at the checkbox's properties window in the Form design, but setting the bordercolor to white or the bordersize to 0 under FlatAppareance had no effect.
Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

I agree with the comments this is not a good practice when designing a user interface, but there is a way to make an invisible button in winforms.
in your constructor or in a method set the properties of the button like so
button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Flat;
button1.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = BackColor;
button1.FlatAppearance.MouseOverBackColor = BackColor;
button1.FlatAppearance.MouseDownBackColor = BackColor;
this will render a invisible to the user button that can be clicked. that is if your click event is already set up.

Form disappears when resetting Form's TopLevel property

In my application I am displaying a new form which needs to be at TopLevel.
So, I am setting
someForm.TopLevel = true;
Now, I have a checkbox, which will allow user to set it to "not a top level".
When unchecked, i want to set TopLevel = false
But when I do this, my form disappears. Does anyone know why?
Here is my code:
private void stayOnTop_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.TopLevel = this.stayOnTop.Checked;
}

Because your checkbox is named stayOnTop, I assume you want to set the TopMost property instead of TopLevel.

The setting TopLevel is only meaningful in MDI applications - ones where a parent form has one or more child forms inside it (like Word and Excel used to work).

TopLevelControl is the main form of your application. By setting TopLevel to false the TopLevelControl is set to null. In that case there is no main form to display for your application. If you add a timer that will switch it back to true you will see that it appears again. (It is interesting though that there is no preventing mechanism. For instance it's not possible to add a top level form to another top level form. But you are allowed to get rid of top levels forms entirely.)
So that's why it disappears. If you want it only sent to background you can use SendToBack() method. It will change Z-index of the form. So if there is a window behind your control, the control will be moved behind the window.

Try these codes :
private void stayOnTop_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(e.checked == true)
{
someForm.TopLevel = false;
}
else
{
someForm.TopLevel = true;
}
}

Howto enable the expand button in a devexpress Treelist

I have a winforms form with a DevExpress TreeList on it.
The Treelist is drawn as expected.
But the indicator known as "expand button" is missing.
According to the DevExpress Manual the button could be disabled with
OptionsView.ShowButtons = false;
However the TreeList.OptionView.ShowButton value is true.
(It is true during debugging, also no change if I explicitly set it to false and then again to true during initialization)
Which settings can be done so that the "expand button" disappears other then ShowButtons = false?

Try to make the root visible :
treeList1.OptionsView.ShowRoot = true;

Is it possible to add more than one panel in same location

i'm using telerik control.
So i want to ask,
In winforms application ,Is it possible to add more than one panel in same location and display one at a time just like show/hide property.

Make sure you have placed all panel control in same container or form. then you can use Visible property to show and hide panel. BringFront and SendToBack function will be used to bring panel on top or send it to back. If you have placed any panel in another panel then that will be disappeared when you Hide parent panel. So, Make sure all panels' parent control must be same. To determine the parent control simply select that panel and press escape key to select their parent.
private void LoadPanels()
{
panel1.Location = new Point(10,10);
panel2.Location = new Point(10,10);
panel3.Location = new Point(10,10);
panel4.Location = new Point(10,10);
panel5.Location = new Point(10,10);
VisiblePanel("panel1");
}
private void VisiblePanel(string panelName)
{
string[] panels = new string[]{"panel1","panel2","panel3","panel4","panel5"};
for (int i=0;i<panels.Length;i++)
this.Controls[panels[i]].Visible = (panels[i] == panelName);
this.Controls[panelName].BringToFront(); //Not required you can remove this line.
}

Here's a slightly different approach you might want to consider...
Are you wanting to be able to programmatically select the contents of a rectangular area at runtime, selecting among various controls to display? If so, you could use a custom TabControl which has its tabs (not the pages) hidden.
Then you can select which page is displayed by programmatically changing its SelectedIndex property at runtime.
Doing it like this means that your form editor will show a normal tab control, which allows you to much more easily add the content to each page - but at runtime the tabs will be hidden from the user; they will just see the contents of the currently selected page.
See Hans Passant's answer here for how to create such a custom tab control.
(However, you might also want to override the OnKeyDown for the custom tab control in order to ignore Ctrl-Tab.)

how can i achieve this in c#

i'm developing a windows form application.in the form, the left part is a tree menu, and the right part is show area. how can i change the show area according to what i click on the tree menu.
(source: 126.net)
i use treenode class to implement treemenu like this:
System.Windows.Forms.TreeNode treeNode27 = new System.Windows.Forms.TreeNode("basic operation");
what i try to do is use several panels. each panel bounds to a menu item. by setting the visible property, i can achieve that goal. but it is too inconvenient.especially when i try to design each panel.
any good suggestion?

You could design each "Panel" as a new User Control. That way you can design all of the "panels / areas" on their own, independently of the Main Form.
On your Main Form, create a single panel for the right hand side area and add all of the controls to that one panel.
Then when the TreeNode selection event happens you can set all the user controls to .Visible = false; except for the one you are showing and set that to .Visible = true; and .Dock = DockStyle.Fill;

What you need is an event handler that will be called at the time of the user clicking the treeview (Use TreeView from the toolBox). You can do that by selecting the treeview on the design page and under properties click on Events. Then select NodeMouseDoubleClick or NodeMouseClick depending upon what you want. Below is a code that captures the values selected...Enjoy...;)
private void treeView1_NodeMouseDoubleClick(object sender, TreeNodeMouseClickEventArgs e)
{
if (treeView1.SelectedNode.Level == 2)
{
//text on the first level
string text = treeView1.SelectedNode.Text;
}
else if (treeView1.SelectedNode.Level == 1)
{
//text on the second level
string text = treeView1.SelectedNode.Text;
}
}