C# winforms changing look of owner drawn tabs - c#

I've used the answer to this question to develop tabs that have a add tab and remove tab functionality: Close button for TabPages of Right To Left TabControl c#
The look here is very different compared to the default tabs look. How do I paint the custom control in the above question to make it look like the default tabs look? Images below to demonstrate what I mean.
This first image here shows the default look without having the tabcontrol being overriden by ownerdrawmode.
This second image here shows the look from the answer in the link.

How about using custom drawn controls instead of those tab headers (i guess thats how they are called) and loading user control instead of that tab page? it can be easily done: here is "tabs" (user controls) sample https://github.com/WithoutCaps/LimitlessUI/blob/master/LimitlessUI/TabsAdapter_WOC.cs
(there is project demo too )

Related

(WPF) Popup with a TabItem Layout

I currently have an application that uses a ToggleButton/Popup feature and it all works as expected, but I wanted to see if there's a way (either through control templates or custom controls) that allows the toggle button to be included as part of the popup window.
The effect I'm going for is similar to the standard TabControl/TabItem layout but instead the ToggleButton would replace the header of the TabItem and the Popup would serve as it's content.
In the end, I want to have the Popup window display to the immediate right side of the ToggleButton and have one continuous border that wraps around the outside edges of the ToggleButton and the outside edges of the Popup window with no border inbetween. The final appearance would show no separation between the two controls, and the user would perceive the ToggleButton and the Popup as a single control object.
I was thinking it might be possible to edit a template of a standard TabItem and have it's content property display as a popup, but haven't tried it yet.
Let me know if you think this is the way to go or if there's any other potential solutions. Thanks.
Almost everything in WPF can be done in multiple ways. The same is true with your goal.
If you plan on reusing this control in multiple places, I would suggest building it as a custom control. I build custom controls and UI libraries for a living, so I am a bit biased.
I would build a custom control that inherits from HeaderedContentControl. The Header property is the content of your ToggleButton, and the Content property would be the content of your Popup. Since you own the ControlTemplate and code, you can make it look and function exactly how you need it to with no compromises.

How do I create a Tab Control with no Tab Header in Windows form?

I have created a Windows form using a Tab Control, but it has a header with it. I want to hide it. I am not able to do it using any properties of the Tab Control. Is there any property defined for hiding the tab header for the Tab Control without going through the code?
Use following code to hide the tabs or set these properties in design.
tabControl.Appearance = TabAppearance.FlatButtons;
tabControl.ItemSize = new Size(0, 1);
tabControl.SizeMode = TabSizeMode.Fixed;
You want the tab panels without the feature allowing a user to switch between them, so I suppose you want to create few separate sets of controls to be shown to the user one at a time. You can achieve this in several ways (you can choose one of them if you find it appropriate in your case):
Use several Panel controls instead of several tabs in the TabControl, however, it would be hard to work in the designer, because all the controls would be visible
Use different Forms instead of tabs to keep the layout parts separated. It can be ok, but you may not want to use multiple Forms, so it depends on a specific case.
and finally, the suggested solution:
Encapsulate each set of controls in a UserControl. This allows you to keep each layout separately, so you can easily design each of them without the other controls getting in the way ;). The the code handling each of the layouts would also be separated. Then just drag those controls in the Form and use set their visibilities appropriately to show the one you want.
If none of those suggestions work for you, let me know, so I can look for other possible solutions.
It's more easy as you think, you just drag the panel's window upper, so will be outside of the form.
Use DrawMode: OwnerDrawFixed will hide TabPage header text DrawMode : OwnerDrawFixed
Another way to achieve the same (or similar) is: You can remove tabs from TabControl.TabPages collection and then add the tab you want to show.
During the Form initialization I remove tabs (so into the designer I can easily manage them) and in some control event (as button click) I show the tab the user has to see.
Something like that:
// During form load:
ctrTab.TabPages.Clear();
// ......
// During button click or some other event:
if(rbSend.Checked)
ctrTab.TabPages.Add(pgSend);
else
ctrTab.TabPages.Add(pgReceive);
In this way the user can still see the header tab but just as title of controls group, he can't change/switch the current active tab.

c# winForms open forms inside mainform

I have programmed c# application i will post screenshot. In this main form is 3 buttons which opens different forms. Now i decided to modify this application I want to Make one main form with strip menu which will open this forms. I used this code but i don't like or i'm doing something wrong. I don't like because there is child controls(minimize, maximize, close) in parent (please see second picture ):
Please advice me something. Is MDI good for such job? Thanks!
Sell sell = new Sell();
sell.MdiParent = this;
sell.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
sell.Show();`
So my problem is that parent form is not filling when i open child form this is creen how to make that it parent form was filled with child form
Seeing your latest edit, I assume the reason that your child form's content doesn't fill the screen even when it's maximized is because your content/layout is not flexible.
Wherever you've placed the controls during Design Mode is where they're going to end up at run time, regardless of how big or small you make the window. If the window is too small to contain all of them, they'll either be covered up or you will see scrollbars. Alternatively, if the window is made larger than necessary, you'll see a lot of empty space.
The way around this is either to set the Dock and Anchor properties of your controls, which causes them to expand and compress to fit the layout of their containing form. You could also place your controls inside a TableLayoutPanel or FlowLayoutPanel control to help manage their layout.
As far as the question you appeared to be asking originally, I still can't tell if you're opposed to the way an MDI application looks, or if you simply don't understand how to correctly implement it. The clarification comment you offered actually makes things less clear to me—you posted a code snippet, but didn't explain what it means. As I wrote in a comment, there's no (non-hackish) way to show a form that doesn't have minimize, maximize, and close buttons (setting the FormBorderStyle property to "None" does this, but I think this is a silly solution that simply allows you to use the wrong control for the job—it won't behave like a form, the user won't be able to move it around like a form, etc. so why use a form?).
If you truly want to have a single application window with changing content in the center, you should create a series of UserControls. You can lay out each user control with the necessary child controls, just like you would with a form (using the fluid layout techniques I discussed above), add each user control to your main form, set each control's Dock property to "Fill" (so that they fill the entire viewing area), and then write code to simply swap out the currently visible user control in your main form's viewing area. The advantage of using a UserControl versus something like a Panel is that you consolidate all of your code into a single control, much like you would with a Form. You could use a tab control, but if you don't want to show any indication that there are multiple forms (which is what your aim appears to be), this would also be the wrong control for the job.
If you literally want to open child forms inside your main form, as your question title indicates, you should indeed be using MDI. If you don't understand how to do this, you'll need to clarify your question further.
Set MDI Container property to true for your parent form. It will help.
Set
FormBorderStyle = None
for your child forms

How can I simulate a tab control?

I want to have buttons that kind of act like tabs - they switch between "pages" of the application. How can I achieve this effect? I'm thinking that I could just put the controls in some kind of container and toggle the visible attribute, but is that plausible?
I am using WinForms.
The reason I don't want to use a tab control is because some of the panels already have tab controls in them..I don't want to create a nested tab hell. I just want some kind of spiffy button based navigation.
You could "attach" button functionality to Panels, then use the panels as the "tabs". You could even create a UserControl that inherently ties them together.
However, a TabControl (for Winforms) already exists that does this. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.tabcontrol.aspx
If you're looking for something for ASP.Net 2.0 and above, you could try the following: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/custom-controls/TabControl.aspx
I think the best option is to use this WinForms TabStrip control -- a subclass of ToolStrip where the buttons are drawn as tabs, and you simply treat them as such programmatically by switching which panel is shown in your container as tabs are selected.

prev next pages for winforms

I'd like to implement the prev/next page behaviour for a winforms app like the browser prev/next pages
any existing code samples or guidance on where to start ?
I'd assume this is something already implemented and would not like to reinvent the wheel if possible
If the sample uses scsf/cab, that would be even better
Use TabPane, Panel or any other container control. Show or hide them or use Zorder.
I did this when I wrote an Aero Wizard host. Basically the strategy was to keep a List<T> of Panels that contained each page's controls, and that page Panel would be docked to a fixed Panel in the wizard. When the back button was clicked, I just replaced the contents of the host Panel with the previous Panel from the List<T>. And as users move "forward", just add the current page Panel to the list.

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