I am developing a Windows Form Application with several pages. I am using a TabControl to implement this. Instead of using the header to switch between tabs, I want my application to control this e.g. the next tab should open after the user has filled in a text box and clicked the next button.
Add a new class to your project and paste the code shown below. Compile. Drop the new control from the top of the toolbox onto your form. It shows the tabs at design time so you can easily switch between them while designing. They are hidden at runtime, use the SelectedTab or SelectedIndex property in your code to switch the page.
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
public class TablessControl : TabControl {
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
// Hide tabs by trapping the TCM_ADJUSTRECT message
if (m.Msg == 0x1328 && !DesignMode) m.Result = (IntPtr)1;
else base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
tabControl1.Appearance = TabAppearance.FlatButtons;
tabControl1.ItemSize = new Size(0, 1);
tabControl1.SizeMode = TabSizeMode.Fixed;
Create new UserControl, name it for example TabControlWithoutHeader and change inherited UserControl to TabControl and add some code. Result code should look like:
public partial class TabControlWithoutHeader: TabControl
{
public TabControlWithoutHeader()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == 0x1328 && !DesignMode)
m.Result = (IntPtr)1;
else
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
After compile you will have TabControlWithoutHeader control in ToolBox. Drop it on form, in designer you will see headers, but at runtime they'll be hidden. If you want to hide them in designer too, then remove && !DesignMode.
Hope that helps.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c290832f-3b84-4200-aa4a-7a5dc4b8b5bb/tabs-in-winform?forum=winforms
You can replace tabcontrol with a hand made panel that mimic like you want:
class MultiPagePanel : Panel
{
private int _currentPageIndex;
public int CurrentPageIndex
{
get { return _currentPageIndex; }
set
{
if (value >= 0 && value < Controls.Count)
{
Controls[value].BringToFront();
_currentPageIndex = value;
}
}
}
public void AddPage(Control page)
{
Controls.Add(page);
page.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
}
}
And then add pages and set current visible page:
MultiPagePanel p;
// MyTabPage is a Control derived class that represents one page on your form.
MyTabPage page = new MyTabPage();
p.AddPage(page);
p.CurrentPageIndex = 0;
I was needing this code but in VB.net so I converted it. If someone needs this code in VB.Net there it is
Imports System
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public Class TablessControl
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.TabControl
Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
' Hide tabs by trapping the TCM_ADJUSTRECT message
If (m.Msg = Convert.ToInt32("0x1328", 16) And Not DesignMode) Then
m.Result = CType(1, IntPtr)
Else
MyBase.WndProc(m)
End If
End Sub
End Class
and thanks to #Hans Passant for the answer in C#
To complement Hans Passant's existing answer, I've found four ways to hide the arrows from the user when the numbers of tabs exceeds the width of the TablessControl. No single solution is necessarily perfect for everyone, but may be for you (or at least a combination of them).
Solution 1:
Simply enable Multiline. This will prevent the arrows from appearing in the first place. However, bear in mind, you may lose WYSIWYG in the designer because the vertical space will be adjusted downwards vertically, and controls within the TablessControl may even be 'chopped off' at the bottom (again, only in developer mode though).
Solution 2:
A more advanced solution which solves the WYSIWYG problem above is to only enable Multiline once the program gets running. Simply add this constructor to the TablessControl class:
public TablessControl()
{
bool designMode = (LicenseManager.UsageMode == LicenseUsageMode.Designtime);
if (!designMode) Multiline = true;
}
To the developer, they will still appear as a single line of tabs.
Solution 3:
Decrease the font size of the TablessControl. Each tab should shrink accordingly. Since the user never gets to see the tabs, it shouldn't matter much if you set the font sizes to even 4pt.
However be careful, because the TablessControl's contents may also be resized. If this happens, re-edit the font size for each widget inside, and at that point, they'll thankfully stay at that size even if you then decide to re-change the main TablessControl's font size again.
This approach also has the advantage of more closely showing the true WYSIWYG vertical real-estate to the developer (which can look fine for the user, but may be cut off slightly at the bottom in the designer due to the height of the tabs).
This solution can be combined with Solution 1 and 2 for accumulated advantages.
Solution 4:
This solution isn't necessarily so great if any of the tabs have text which are long. Thanks to Hans for suggesting it.
First set the TablessControl's SizeMode to 'Fixed', and then reduce the TablessControl's ItemSize Width property to a smaller number to reduce each tab's width. Feel free also to adjust the ItemSize Height property to help address the aforementioned WYSIWYG issue, though Solution 3 may be more helpful for that problem.
This solution can be combined with the above solutions to further accumulate advantages.
If you really want to do this, yo can do something like this
tcActionControls.Region = new Region(new RectangleF(
tbPageToShow.Left,
tbPageToShow.Top,
tbPageToShow.Width,
tbPageToShow.Height)
);
Where tcActionControls is your TabControl and tbPageToShow is a TabPage to show in this precise moment.
Should work for you.
Regards.
This solution appears to work well -
How to hide tabs in the tab control?
Insert Tabcontrol into a form, the default name being tabcontrol1.
Ensure that tabcontrol1 is selected in the Properties pane in visual studio and change the following properties:
a. Set Appearance to Buttons
b. Set ItemSize 0 for Width and 1 for Height
c. Set Multiline to True
d. Set SizeMode to Fixed
This is best done after your have finished your design time tasks as it hides them in the designer as well - making it difficult to navigate!
You can try removing the TabPage from the TabPageCollection :
TabControl.TabPageCollection tabCol = tabControl1.TabPages;
foreach (TabPage tp in tabCol)
{
if(condition)
{
tabCol.Remove(tp);
}
}
In my WinForms app, I was able to work around this by positioning the TabControl's y-coordinate outside the visible range of the form, so the tabs were effectively hidden. This example only works if the tabControl is near the top of the form, but you get the idea.
private void frmOptions_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tabControl1.Top = -23; //Only tabPage contents visible
}
Related
I have a StatusStrip docked to the bottom of a C# Form, it contains a label, the text in it displays fine, except when there is longer length of text then it does not display at all, and I have to widen the form and then all of a sudden it appears. Is it possible to show it in the form below:
This is a very long tex...
So that the user knows that the app is showing something and then he can widen it himself, because when it is not visible at all, it does not indicate anything to user.
You can create a custom renderer based on ToolStripProfessionalRenderer and override OnRenderItemText method and draw text with ellipsis:
public class CustomRenderer : ToolStripProfessionalRenderer
{
protected override void OnRenderItemText(ToolStripItemTextRenderEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Item is ToolStripStatusLabel)
TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, e.Text, e.TextFont,
e.TextRectangle, e.TextColor, Color.Transparent,
e.TextFormat | TextFormatFlags.EndEllipsis);
else
base.OnRenderItemText(e);
}
}
Then it's enough to set Renderer of your StatusStrip to your custom renderer:
this.statusStrip1.Renderer = new CustomRenderer();
In below example, You can see the behavior of a ToolStripStatusLabel which it's Spring property is set to true and its StatusStrip uses CustomRenderer:
If you set
ToolStripStatusLabel.Spring = True;
then you won't get the "..." but the text will be shown even when the available space is insufficient.
On Visual Studio 2017, the accepted answer didn't work for me. So here is another simple solution.
Set LayoutStyle property of StatusStrip to Flow. i.e:
statusStrip1.LayoutStyle= LayoutStyle.Flow;
And Set
`statusStrip1.AutoSize= false;`
How to hide DropDownList in ComboBox?
I want use ComboBox only for displaying text.This control look nice, for me is better than TextBox plus Button. So control must be enabled, but without any items.
When user click arrow (or alt + down key) DropDownList should'n show, because ill select value from custom DataGridView in order to fill back text in ComboBox.
Edit. Alternative solution is set DropDownHeight to 1, with show only 1 pixel line after clicking control.
Edit. Real solution. Answer below
You can intercept the messages that cause the box to drop-down, in a subclass. The following snippet defines a control NoDropDownBox, that ignores the mouse clicks that result in a drop-down of the combo box:
public class NoDropDownBox : ComboBox
{
public override bool PreProcessMessage(ref Message msg)
{
int WM_SYSKEYDOWN = 0x104;
bool handled = false;
if (msg.Msg == WM_SYSKEYDOWN)
{
Keys keyCode = (Keys)msg.WParam & Keys.KeyCode;
switch (keyCode)
{
case Keys.Down:
handled = true;
break;
}
}
if(false==handled)
handled = base.PreProcessMessage(ref msg);
return handled;
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch(m.Msg)
{
case 0x201:
case 0x203:
break;
default:
base.WndProc(ref m);
break;
}
}
}
You will have less trouble and create a better end result by simply creating a usercontrol with a textbox and button that is styled in the way you want. If you figure out a way to remove the functionality of the combobox, all you're really doing is creating unneeded complexity.
Maybe it's better to create a custom control once and use it any time you do need this functionality.
If you are working with Windows Forms maybe the easiest way is to inherit class UserControl and create your component using the visual designer writing a little code. You can also descend ComboBox class and code your own drawing logic but it seems to be requiring more work.
[Updated]
OK, you can't set the Combo Box to Read Only, but you can set Enabled = false.
I've never tried this, but perhaps you could set the MaxDropDownItems to 0.
But, yo'd still set the Combo Box's Text to the value you want in code.
[Edit]
Another idea: Set DropDownHeight to 0 (...or 1 if it won't accept 0).
If the DropDownStyle is set to DropDown and the Text is set to "Something" then your ComboBox won't dropdown when user clicks the button.
At least, I'm getting that behaviour in WinForms (C# 4.0).
Is that what you are trying to achieve?
How do I make a tab manager that doesn't show the tab headers?
This is a winforms application, and the purpose of using a tab manager is so the display content can only be changed through code. It's good for menus where various menu options change the screen contents.
Hiding the tabs on a standard TabControl is pretty simple, once you know the trick. The tab control is sent a TCM_ADJUSTRECT message when it needs to adjust the tab size, so we just need to trap that message. (I'm sure this has been answered before, but posting the code is easier than searching for it.)
Add the following code to a new class in your project, recompile, and use the CustomTabControl class instead of the built-in control:
class CustomTabControl : TabControl
{
private const int TCM_ADJUSTRECT = 0x1328;
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
// Hide the tab headers at run-time
if (m.Msg == TCM_ADJUSTRECT && !DesignMode)
{
m.Result = (IntPtr)1;
return;
}
// call the base class implementation
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
(Code sample originally taken from Dot Net Thoughts.)
Note that this will not work properly for tab headers positioned on the sides or the bottom. But not only does that just look weird, you won't be able to see the tabs at run-time anyway. Just put them on the top where they belong.
Right, if it's web application, you can build your own DIV with the same placement and hide/show as per your needs.
Along with everybody else, I find your question a bit confusing. I've used this method found here before. Using this way you have a single property you can change as to whether you want to show the tab headers or not.
After the edit and comments made the question more clear, I think the normal way to handle this is to use multiple panels rather than tabs.
I guess, that using panels is the simplest solution. In addition, I suggest using my (free, opensource) VisualStateManager to simplify switching and eliminate lots of .Enabled = true horrors.
Package is available on Nuget.
Just write this code:
// Contains and propagates information about current page
private SwitchCondition<int> settingPageCondition;
// Controls state of specific controls basing on given SwitchCondition
private VisualStateSwitchController<int> settingPageController;
// (...)
private void InitializeActions()
{
// Initialize with possible options
settingPageCondition = new SwitchCondition<int>(0, 1);
settingPageController = new VisualStateSwitchController<int>(
null, // Enabled is not controlled
null, // Checked is not controlled
settingPageCondition, // Visible is controller by settingPageCondition
new SwitchControlSet<int>(0, pGeneral), // State 0 controls pGeneral
new SwitchControlSet<int>(1, pParsing)); // State 1 controls pParsing
}
// (...)
public void MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeActions();
}
// (...)
// Wat to set specific page
settingPageCondition.Current = 0;
I want to create a Windows form in C# with textbox whose text cannot be altered or selected by the user.
I managed to make it unalterable (ReadOnly = true), but I am still able to select and highlight the text.
How can I change this?
Thanks!
-R
This is the expected behavior and is by design. You can see this for yourself if you right-click on an item in Windows Explorer and open its Properties window. All of the dynamic text fields on the "General" tab are selectable, though not modifiable. If this is not the behavior you desire, you should strongly consider using a Label control instead. This is the exact situation for which it was intended—static text that is not selectable by the user.
In case, for whatever reason, you're not sold on why you should use a Label control instead, I'll proceed onward in answering the question you asked. The major problem with trying to override this behavior (like overriding the default behavior of any control) is that there are a lot of ways for the user to accomplish it: clicking and dragging with the mouse, double-clicking the mouse button, using the arrow keys on the keyboard in combination with the Shift key, tabbing into the textbox,right-clicking and choosing "Select All" from the context menu, etc...
Your first instinct might be to override the potentially relevant events exposed by the .NET Framework (such as OnMouseDown, OnKeyDown, etc.) and reset the selected length to 0 so that the text is immediately unselected after it is automatically selected. However, this causes a little bit of a flicker effect in the process, which may or may not be acceptable to you.
Alternatively, you could do the same thing by overriding the control's WndProc method, watching for the relevant window messages, and preventing the messages from being passed on to the control's base class altogether. This will prevent the flicker effect because the base TextBox control never actually receives a message causing it to automatically select its text, but it does have the obvious side effect of preventing the control from taking any action as a result of these common events. It seems like that probably doesn't matter to you in this case, but realize that this is still a pretty drastic hack. I definitely cannot recommend it as being good practice.
That being said, if you're still interested, you could use the following custom UnselectableTextBox class. It prevents the processing of every window message that I could think of which would possibly allow the user to select text. It does indeed work, but fair warning: there may be yet others I haven't thought of.
public class UnselectableTextBox : TextBox
{
public UnselectableTextBox() : base()
{
//Set it to read only by default
this.ReadOnly = true;
}
protected override void OnGotFocus(System.EventArgs e)
{
base.OnGotFocus(e);
//Prevent contents from being selected initally on focus
this.DeselectAll();
}
protected override void WndProc(ref System.Windows.Forms.Message m)
{
const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x100;
const int WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x201;
const int WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK = 0x203;
const int WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x204;
if ((m.Msg == WM_KEYDOWN) || (m.Msg == WM_LBUTTONDOWN) ||
(m.Msg == WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK) || (m.Msg == WM_RBUTTONDOWN))
{
this.DeselectAll();
return;
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
Use label inplace of textbox. I think you only want to show information but not to select, not to copy, using label will be better option...
Is disabling it an option? (Enabled = false)
I have a small problem that has been annoying me for some hours.
In my WinForms (.NET 3.5) application I create some ComboBoxes (DropDownStyle = DropDown) in a TableLayoutPanel at runtime and fill it with strings. The ComboBoxes are configured to resize automatically (Anchor = Left | Right).
The problem is that whenever the ComboBoxes are resized (i.e. the dialog is resized), the editbox portion of the ComboBox gets selected/highlighted entirely. In my opinion this creates a very confusing effect for the customer which I want to avoid.
The problem doesn't appear if the ComboBox has a fixed size.
Also note that changing the DropDownStyle is not an option - I need the possibility to enter text manually.
I already tried messing around with overriding the OnPaint method, which didn't quite work.
I also tried clearing the selection in the ComboBox.Resize event, which worked in a way, but seemed like a very ugly solution - there was a lot of flicker, intentionally selected text became deselected and I would have to add the event handler to each and every ComboBox on my dialog.
Is there a better solution to this problem?
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Andy
This is an old question, but I found it searching for an answer and ended up implementing my own solution. Might as well post it here, right?
foreach (var cb in Controls.OfType<ComboBox>())
{
cb.Resize += (sender, e) => {
if (!cb.Focused)
cb.SelectionLength = 0;
};
}
intentionally selected text became deselected
This WinForms bug doesn't affect selected ComboBoxes, so by ignoring the ones with Focus, we take care of the problem of losing current selections.
I would have to add the event handler
to each and every ComboBox on my
dialog.
Taken care of by the foreach loop. Put it in InitializeComponent() or your .ctor if you don't want to break the designer, or have the designer break this.
there was a lot of flicker
I'm only seeing flicker if I resize very fast, but I'm on Win7 so it might be different on XP.
This appears to be a bug in the native Windows implementation of ComboBox with DropDownStyle of DropDown.
The fix detailed in the other answers here (setting the SelectionLength property to 0 (zero) in the ComboBox's Resize event) works well most of the time.
However, I found that even that fix to work around this bug does not always work. If the ComboBox is in a TableLayoutPanel, and if that TableLayoutPanel has more than one column with a Percent Size Type, then that fix often does not work.
A picture is worth a thousand words. See the following screen shot of a form I made to demonstrate the problem.
Worked for me to change the selectionLength to 0 when the WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED gets called.
Works even with the tableLayoutPanel set to %.
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
base.WndProc(ref m);
if(m.Msg == 0x0047) { // WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED = 0x0047
if (SelectionLength != 0) {
SelectionLength = 0;
}
}
}
Wow. Thank you guys!
Apparently this bug has persisted many years.
I'm building a UserControl with .Net 4 (Visual Studio 2010).
Here's is my slightlty modified version of bsneeze's code.
Cheers
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Linq;
public MyUserControlCtor()
{
InitializeComponent();
foreach( Control ctrl in Controls)
{
ComboBox cb = ctrl as ComboBox;
if (cb != null)
{
cb.Resize += (sender, e) =>
{
if (!cb.Focused)
this.FCHZ_ComboBox.SelectionLength = 0;
};
}
}
}
None of the answers so far worked for me. The only reliable method I have found was to post a message asynchronously via BeginInvoke that sets SelectionLength back to zero after all other activity on the control has completed. The amount of flicker is very annoying and unprofessional, but it is the best I could come up with...so far.
internal class FixedComboBox : ComboBox
{
protected override void OnResize(EventArgs e)
{
if (IsHandleCreated && !Focused)
{
BeginInvoke((Action)(() =>
{
SelectionLength = 0;
}));
}
base.OnResize(e);
}
}
I found setting the selection length to 0 for the combo-box on the resize event of whatever control the combo-box is on causes a lot less flickering instead of doing it on the resize of the combo itself.
I actually achieved this in VB.Net but it should apply the same to C#.
Handle the Resize event for the ComboBox's parent container. Put this line in there:
MyComboBox.SelectionLength = 0
An Example (VB, obviously):
Private Sub MyControl_Resize(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Resize
MyComboBox.SelectionLength = 0
End Sub
Good Luck to you!
--BP
For a ComboBox inside a TableLayoutPanel setting the .SelectionLength = 0 on the ComboBox.Resize event does not work, but doing this on the TableLayoutPanel.Resize event does:
Private Sub TableLayoutPanel_Resize(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim curr_panel = TryCast(sender, System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel)
For Each curr_combo As ComboBox In curr_panel.Controls.OfType(Of ComboBox)
If ((Not curr_combo.Focused) And curr_combo.DropDownStyle = ComboBoxStyle.DropDown) Then
curr_combo.SelectionLength = 0
End If
Next
End Sub
dim panel as new TableLayoutPanel with {
...
}
AddHandler panel.Resize, AddressOf TableLayoutPanel_Resize