4 panes WinForm

[Ronny]

I work with VS2005 and .NET FW ver. 3.0.
I need to implement 3 to 4 panes in my form application.
Is that possible?
Is there a way for the user to configure in real time (the pane number)?
Is there some reference or a sample anywhere in the Internet that is close
to that?

Regards
Ronny

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Re: 4 panes WinForm

Ronny,

You are going to have to use a number of panels for this, and
create/delete panels as the user changes the number that they want (how they
choose to do that is up to you).

You can also use a combination of splitters as well to allow the users
to size the panels.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mvp@spam.guard. caspershouse.co m

"Ronny" <ronny@john.com wrote in message
news:ej2GDKB7IH A.3260@TK2MSFTN GP03.phx.gbl...

>I work with VS2005 and .NET FW ver. 3.0.
I need to implement 3 to 4 panes in my form application.
Is that possible?
Is there a way for the user to configure in real time (the pane number)?
Is there some reference or a sample anywhere in the Internet that is close
to that?
>
Regards
Ronny
>

[Bill Woodruff]

Re: 4 panes WinForm

"Ronny" wrote :

"I need to implement 3 to 4 panes in my form application. Is that possible?"

Assuming you mean to manipulate 3 or 4 independent container controls within
one form ?

Most helpful, I think, would be if you would specify your requirements a
little more specifically : is it the case that that one of your "panes" is
always displayed simultaneously with another "pane" or does the end-user
have the choice of seeing only one pane; is one ... or more ... panes of the
set of panes always visible ? Do you wish the user to have the capability to
re-size, move, or dock the panes within the master container as well as
control pane visibility ?

Yes, many different ways you could approach that. As "raw materials" you
could use SplitContainers , as others have suggested, regular panels, even
other Forms. You could go "retro" and trot out the old classic MDI
windows-in-main-window facilities (bias : personally, I don't like MDI
interfaces).

If you really want to "think outside the box" you can make each of your
containers a separate window (Form) and show them independently on the
screen (or move them to display inside another Form if you wish at
run-time). Note that I am NOT saying you should do that :)

"Is there a way for the user to configure in real time (the pane number)?"

A lot depends on what you want the interface to present to the user at
run-time in terms of pane management : independent showing/hiding of your
"panes" from a menu, control of individual "panes" by go-away hickeys like
forms have, hiding of "panes" by dynamic resizing of a SplitContainer' s
split-control through the user clicking and dragging at run-time ...
switching between pre-sets of fixed relations of panes ?

Yes, again many ways to approach this. Hiding panels within SplitContainers ;
using independent regular panels and adjusting their docking or anchoring at
run-time depending on what's being shown, etc. You might want to check out
FlowLayoutPanel and TableLayoutPane l briefly for some more ideas to round
out your sense of what's possible with WinForms' container controls.

"Is there some reference or a sample anywhere in the Internet that is close
to that?"

Check MSDN for documentation/examples/tutorials on SplitContainers .
Experiment. You might look at Chris Sells' excellent book on WinForms.
Search CodeProject for SplitContainer, perhaps filtering by .NET language of
your choice.

best, Bill