What shall i use to make a spacer between elements in visual studio like that in QT
http://www.tuxradar.com/files/qt_menq_spacers.jpg
You might be able to use the Margin and Padding properties of any control to that end.
Edit: In response to your comment, I get the impression that your main goal is not to add a certain amount of space between controls (which would be what the Margin and Padding properties are for), but that you want to align controls along certain lines or edges. In Winforms, this is usually done via a combination of panels and the proper use of a control's Anchor and Dock properties.
You can use Anchor property to position controls relative to the dialogs edges.
And you can use a couple of panels to separate controls into different areas.
But I don´t think there is some thing like the spacers you mentioned in the question.
Related
In Adobe Illustrator and other drawing programs I can group objects so I can move them together, resize them together, or treat them as a single object when I'm doing alignments. Is there a way to do this in Visual Studio 2012? I've seen GroupBox, but that's not what I want because that's a programming object instead of a behavior of the IDE. And how can I make it such that I can, say, keep two controls fixed in position but still align or change the spacing of third a third with respect to them?
In Windows Forms you group controls by dropping them inside the same container. Then moving the container, or disabling it, or hiding it, anything really, also affects every child object too.
Rather than a GroupBox though, I'd recommend a Panel. It's a light weight object who's sole purpose is to just host controls.
Say, I have an Image control (which seems to be a window-less control) and I want to make sure that it is on top of a TextBox. No matter what I do, the Image control will not appear on top of the Text box.
Is there a way?
P.S. I know I can use a PictureBox, but it does not support transparency, thus I must have the Image control.
There is no way to place an image control over a normal textbox as they are drawn onto the form itself so will always be below any other windowed components.
If you have VB6 installation media there are drawn (windowless) versions of controls including a TextBox you can use that will (probably) do what you want; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184687
A custom usercontrol of some kind if probably better .. what is it exactly you want to overlay the textbox with?
The Image Control is considered a graphical control, like shapes, so it is always inferior to text controls. If you really want a transparent image, you can use a Microsoft 2.0 Form instead(only if you have it). Images there can be on top of textboxes, and you can make it transparent by setting the Backstyle to Transparent(0).
Completely different approach to my other answer (hence the seperate Answer), but you can set AutRedraw and ClipControls on your Form to false and it will allow the Image control to render on the same layer as a windowed control. You can get some flakey redrawing in some cases but for a quick solution you could try it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa733621(v=vs.60)
I've created a tranparent overlay control to add a kind of annotation layer on top of a VB6 app. I'll attempt to describe it from memory, and if that doesn't provide enough information then you can post back and I'll try to dig up the code.
First, add a new USerControl to you application. Give it a name like ImageEx, PictureEx, or TransparntImage. There are several properties that you will need to use. Ensure the control is Windowed, so it can sit on top of other windowed controls. Locate the MaskColor property and set it to Cyan (or whatever color you elect to use to indicate a tranparent area. There might be an addition property enable the masking behavior, just browse the properties. Set the control background color to that of the MaskColor. At this point you have an invisible control. In my control I painted on top of the surface for annotations, but you can PaintPicture or maybe even set the image property for a really simple approach.
Of course, to make this a re-usable control, you will want to code in your own properties that allow the MaskColor and image, etc to be set so that you can the drop one of these on any form you want.
Some links:
MaskColor Property
MackPicture Property
1) Remove all your textboxes , labels and ... (But memorize their name and location in the form)
2) Go to (project > components) and mark the (Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library) then click ok
3) Now you can see new controls under your default controls in your toolbox...
4) Use its textbox and label controls instead of the default controls
5) Right click on your Image Control then click (Bring To Front)
Is there any way to display ruler or scale in visual studio designer mode? Actually I want a scale that will measure the vertical and horizontal space between the components (eg label, text box) and distance of those components from the form body. The scale or ruler will help to show the components with equal horizontal and vertical space in each form.
If I correctly understood, you need to control the distance of the components in a Window(Winforms).
For this, you can create a control class, this class will check the distances between components in your window and establish rules of location for each component on run time.
For control each component you can use this:
For Each ctrl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeName(ctrl) = "TextBox" Then
If Not ctrl.Width = 0 Then
MsgBox(ctrl.Name)
'Do Something
End If
End If
Next
This rules of location can be applied on your window "load" event
You can learn more about location of component through this links:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.location(v=vs.110).aspx
Changing the location of a control on a windows form programatically using VB.net?
PS. You can see I use vb,net language examples but this can be easily converted to C# or other language.
VS2008 seems to have a new feature that allows one to split a website into the source code and design aspects on the same page. This feature seems great, however it defaults to having the design part on the bottom half of the screen and the code part on the top half.
Unfortunately, my brain doesn't work this way and it ends up being more of a hassle than to just continue switching back and forth when needed like I've done in the past.
Is there a way to swap them so that the design part is on the top and the code part on the bottom? Most other tools in VS are drag and droppable, so I can't see why not, but I'm not finding the setting anywhere. I did a quick google search and found a way to make the split vertical, but thats not what I'm looking for. I'm just looking for the same horizontal split with the design part on top.
Thanks
Here's an alternative approach that may help. If it's a traditional .aspx page (one that has a codebehind), you can open both documents simultaneously. Then right click one in the tab area at the top and select New Horizontal Tab Group. You can manipulate it so that the design window is on top of the code window.
I would be very surprised if this possible, since I have never seen a window configuration that changes the vertical alignment of the Objects and Events drop-down-lists.
I could be wrong, though.
It does seem rather strange - in the xaml designer you can split the screen whichever way you want as there is a button to switch the position of the panes. The options for the html designer only seem to allow a vertical or horizontal split though, there isn't anything in there specifying whether to have code or design at the top, it does seem a little backwards as I imagine most people find it more natural to have the visual designer at the top with the code below.
I am working in Visual Studio 2005. I have multiple splitters on the screen. I have set the splitters IsFixed and I have also set fixed panel sizes. In addition to this I have locked the control. For some reason, when I switch into debug mode the splitter distance value is changing entirely on its own. These changes do not take place with any consistency, the vary in distance changed. Other components, which are also locked, are moving all on their own as well.
Anyone with similar experience? Any ideas?
The settings will stick to either mode you are in. But sometimes plugins or parts of VS does mess it up :(
I recall seeing a plugin written to save 'views', but when I tried it, it didnt work.
I couldn't tell you what is causing this. The way that the windows forms splitter works is through the Docking property. There should be no need to lock the controls. All of the controls on the form should be docked. (Including the splitter)
For example, if you want to split vertically, you have your first panel docked left. Then the splitter (Orientation set to vertical) is also docked to the left. The second panel is docked to fill. The width of the first panel (which is docked left) will determine the location of the splitter. It should not change now.
The z-order is important here for layout purposes. If you want a more detailed look of how the controls are laid on on your form, open the Document Outline. This will list the controls in a tree, and you can see where they are in the z-order.