Tag Archives: forms

Understand the startup form (or main form) in C#

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Rod Stephens

When a C# Windows Forms program starts, it displays a startup form. That form has a special place in the program’s life cycle. If that form ever closes, the application ends. The program can create and close as many other … Continue reading →

Find a form’s screen in C#

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Rod Stephens

Find a form’s screen can be an issue if the user is using more than one monitor. When this program starts, it uses the following code to get the Screen object that holds the form and display its device name, … Continue reading →

Posted in forms | Tagged C#, C# programming, example, example program, forms, primary screen, screen, Windows Forms programming, WorkingArea | Leave a comment

Position a form so it does not stick off the edge of the screen in C#

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Rod Stephens

In the picture, the main program (on the bottom) initially positioned the top form so it was hanging off the right and bottom edges of the screen. The program’s code moved the form so it fit in the screen’s lower … Continue reading →

Posted in forms, user interface | Tagged C#, C# programming, example, example program, forms, popup form, screen, user interface, Windows Forms programming | Leave a comment

Position a form over another form in C#

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Rod Stephens

When you click this example’s button, the program uses the following code to display a new instance of the main form positioned next to the button’s lower left corner (as shown in the picture). // Position a new instance of … Continue reading →

Posted in forms, user interface | Tagged C#, C# programming, example, example program, Form, form location, forms, position form, user interface, Windows Forms programming | Leave a comment

Use a timer to make a form TopMost or BottomMost in C#

Posted on November 16, 2017 by RodStephens

The example Make a form TopMost or BottomMost in C# uses one method for making a form bottommost. It overrides the form’s WndProc method and looks for the message WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING. When it finds that message, the program uses the SetWindowPos … Continue reading →

Posted in API, controls, forms, user interface | Tagged API, BottomMost, C#, C# programming, controls, example, example program, forms, on bottom, on top, SetWindowPos, timer, TopMost, user interface, Windows Forms programming, WM_ACTIVATE, WM_MOVE, WM_PAINT | 2 Comments

Make a form TopMost or BottomMost in C#

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Rod Stephens

Keeping a form on top of other windows is simple. Just set the form’s TopMost property to true. Keeping a form below other windows is harder. To do that, the program must override its WndProc method, look for messages that … Continue reading →

Posted in API, controls, forms | Tagged API, BottomMost, C#, C# programming, controls, example, example program, forms, on bottom, on top, SetWindowPos, TopMost, user interface, Windows Forms programming, WM_ACTIVATE, WM_MOVE, WM_PAINT, WndProc | 1 Comment

Safely manage documents in C#

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Rod Stephens

This is a pretty involved example that shows how to safely manage documents. The pieces are all simple but there are a lot of tightly integrated pieces. This example lets you create, edit, open, and save files in text and … Continue reading →

Posted in files, forms, user interface | Tagged C#, C# programming, close, document control, document management, example, example program, files, FormClosing, forms, manage documents, open new, save, save as, user interface, user interface design, Windows Forms programming | 3 Comments

Center a form on the screen at run time in C#

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Rod Stephens

You can center a form at design time by setting its StartPosition property to CenterScreen. Note that you cannot do this in the form’s Load event handler because the form’s position is already set when that event handler executes. You … Continue reading →

Posted in forms | Tagged C#, C# programming, center a form, center forms, example, example program, forms, Windows Forms programming | Leave a comment

Understand AutoScaleMode in C#

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Rod Stephens

A form’s AutoScaleMode property lets a form automatically resize itself when its font changes. This can be particularly useful with an aging user population that may have trouble seeing smaller fonts. To try to help users out, you can give … Continue reading →

Posted in fonts, forms, graphics | Tagged AutoScaleMode, C#, C# programming, example, example program, font resizing, fonts, forms, graphics, resize font, Windows Forms programming | 2 Comments

Display a form’s control hierarchy in C#

Posted on March 25, 2017 by RodStephens

This example displays the control hierarchy for a form. It’s actually relatively simple. Some controls can contain other controls. For example, a form is a control and it contains all of a Windows Forms application’s controls. Similarly Panel, TableLayoutPanel, SplitContainer, … Continue reading →