Chapter 4. Layout

4. Layout

In Chapter 2: Forms and Chapter 3: Dialogs, we explored the lion's share of form- and dialog-related issues, which are all ably supported by the Form class. But forms have another important, obvious role: They are canvases on which you compose controls. In all but the most trivial cases, it would require a serious investment of time to compose controls and make sure everything's laid out just rightit would, that is, if it weren't for the layout support present in Windows Forms and VS05. Additionally, this support helps a form and its controls gracefully retain their layouts in the face of user resizing, localization, and, in some cases, control rearrangement at run time.

This chapter explores the range of layout support offered by VS05, the Windows Forms Designer, and forms and controls, collectively known as the layout system. The goal is to dramatically simplify the layout process and make your life much easier.