How do I make an irregular shaped Aero window like this one?
Look in the lower right corner!
This program also does it.
This also does it! >_< Even more...
I recently used this solution and it worked for me:
http://devintelligence.com/2007/10/shaped-windows-in-wpf/
I had to create a separate assembly containing the WPF form because the rest of my project uses WinForms. From there it's quite straight forward: Use a background image with transparency and set the form to transparent.
Though you might need to change WindowStyle="None" to something other or else
you'll have no close button etc.
Related
There are some programs such as Google Chrome and this:
They have a windows forms border that is different than the default. How do these programs do this and still allow the user to drag the window around? Is it possible in C#?
There are plenty of component suites (DevExpress, Infragistics, Telerik, etc.) doing this but you can do it on your own as well. But prepare to get dirty - really dirty!
Basically you have to catch the windows messages (yes, native!) and handle them properly. To make the form draggable is the easiest thing in this chapter (you just have to tell windows that the mouse is over the titlebar area even if it is not >> see here on CodeProject).
Let me get back to the painting: Don't do it!
There are so many things to handle ...
is your form maximized, minimized, normal state
which of the buttons (min/max/close) are enabled?
is it a tool window or a sizeable one?
is there a help button?
is the form sizeable? if so, you have to draw that border as well ...
... and so many more.
In addition, painting in the non-client-area is not as easy as painting usercontrols with a Graphics object. And even if that does not scare you by now, you might probably find yourself breaking the layouting logic of your forms' controls because the forms' size is the same as its ClientSize.
So, please consider to use DevExpress or any other toolkit. Speaking of DevExpress - I knew there was a free set of their fantastic controls and I'm pretty sure that the XtraForm (which does all the titlebar painting) is included as well.
Save big parts of your life and skip that chapter.
(However, if you're brave enough, check this article to do it anyway).
I'm trying to make a nice looking UI with Windows Forms but the main problem I have is that the MenuStrip in Windows Forms looks flat. In WPF everything is shiny and pops out, how can I make it so that it looks like that? I tried using a gradient background image but the buttons stayed as blue rectangles. I am also willing to use an alternative control. Any ideas?
I forgot to mention, regarding alternative controls I am looking for something free and open-source.
My personal suggestion would be that you move from menustrips to "Office-like" menus / ribbons.
Please go through the following links / search through these sites
for more custom controls for winforms
Code Project
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/12204/Flat-style-menu-bar-and-popup-menu-control-for-Win
Windows Ribbon for WinForms (Part 1-21)
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/62412/Windows-Ribbon-for-WinForms-Part-1-Introduction
Code Plex
http://ribbon.codeplex.com
http://fluent.codeplex.com
http://windowsribbon.codeplex.com
Who fancies a challenge?
I'm currently working on the ControlTemplate for a chromeless Window which will be a part of a reusable theme assembly. I want the behaviors for moving, closing, minimizing and restoring to be implicit so I've written attached behaviors for this functionality which I've then included in the template.
Now,..I've come to resizing and I've come to a junction. For better or worse I'm handling the mouse move in the behavior and finding whether the cursor is inside the resizing 'zones'. I'm far enough to change the cursor appropriately but now I've gotten to actually resizing the window there are three options I've come across.
I could hand-ball the affair and adjust the Left & Top and Width & Height as needed. This is the simplest option and is easily achievable using attached behaviors but it seems like moderately heavy lifting and I understand that WPF will continue to render as the window is adjusted causing flickering,..which sucks.
The second option is to get a message hook and listen for WM_NCHITTEST and the like but the solutions I've found so far involve me sub-classing Window and I don't want to force consumers of the theme to use any controls that aren't framework provided.
The last option is to somehow draw a rectangle on the screen showing the are the Window will take up as the mouse is dragged and then resize on MouseUp,..which seems doable but it's not something I've done before so some pointers on that would be cool.
So,..what should I do? The Win32 route seems like my best option so far but I'd rather not if someone has a 'purer' solution that works. I'm happy to get suggestions with option 3 and anything right up to .Net 4 in case some dynamic magic might be possible.
Thanks in advance.
I am trying to make my application "flip" when the minimize button is pushed. By flipped, it should be kinda like a coin when flipped. It "flips" down into the taskbar. I am wondering how effects like this are accomplished in WinForms using C#. Can this be done or does something like this need to be done using DirectX?
You could P/Invoke AnimateWindow() to get effects like this. Visit pinvoke.net for the declarations you'll need. Beware that the novelty of this wears off very quickly, definitely make it a user-selectable option.
I don't know, but you can control (including animate) what's displayed within your application window. Doing what you want may therefore require you to animatedly move your window towards the taskbar, while flipping its contents.
This isn't something that WinForms natively supports. You could attempt to "simulate" a flipping window by shrinking the width of the form slowly to 0 and then growing another form at that location to the proper size that looks like the "back" of the window.
But there isn't anything like animations or transitions in winforms. You need to go to WPF for that.
I am trying to create a panel which will have a set of "buttons" on it.
These buttons should have the following behaviour:
Appear similar to a tag (with
rounded edges)
Contain a red
cross to remove the filter/tag from
the panel, similar to the way internet
explorer tabs have an embedded cross to close the individual tab.
allow the user to click
on the tag and respond like a normal
button (as long as the click is not
in the red cross)
Number 1 is no problem, this is just appearance, however, regarding numbers 2 and 3, I am not sure if there is already code out there do to something similar...and I dont really want to reinvent the wheel if I can avoid it!
My question is: Does anyone know if there is something out there in infragistics which will do this simply, or will I need to write this myself by subclassing winform buttons?
Thanks in advance!
Is this new development or maintenance of an existing project?
If it is maintenance, you have a somewhat tougher time ahead. You'll implement a UserControl, probably segmented into two buttons. Use docking to get the behavior as correct as possible. The far right button would contain your cross image; the left (which would need to auto-expand as you resize the control) would contain your primary button behavior. Play with the visual styles until you get them right (EG, removing borders, etc).
If this is new development, and you haven't gotten too far into it, you might consider using Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) instead of WinForms. It will be easier to build the control and get it to look exactly how you want it. WPF includes an extremely powerful control compositing system which allows you to layer multiple controls on top of each other and have them work exactly as you'd expect, and it carries the added advantage of allowing full visual control out-of-the-box.
Either way, this is more work than dropping in an external component ... I've used Infragistics for years, and I can't think of anything they have which is comparable. The closest, but only if you're building an MDI application and these controls are for window navigation, is the Tabbed MDI window management tools -- and there, only the tabs (which replace window title bars) have this behavior.
I don't think that infragistics can do something like this. The UltraButton control can't.
Implementing a own control wouldn't be that hard.
your probably going to have to make a costume control for this type of work.