Question

I am new to .NET UI stuff and I came from a background with tk UI programming so I am trying to find corresponding ways of doing things. Maybe .NET has a way of achieving the same result that I don’t know of.

So what I am trying to do is roughly illustrated in image 1.

We have a header section, a body section and a footer section. They each have a number of controls in them. What I am trying to find is a way for me to let header section and footer section each take a certain height and stretch horizontally; let body section stretch to fill the rest. Is there a way to do this without needing to calculate the point position and just say “pack header towards the top, pack footer towards the bottom and put body in between”

Answer 1

Top Control – Anchor: Left, Right, Top.
MiddleControl – Anchor: Left, Right, Top, Bottom.
Bottom Control – Anchor: Left, Right, Bottom.

namespace ChartApp
{
    partial class Form2
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.panel1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
            this.panel2 = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
            this.panel3 = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // panel1
            // 
            this.panel1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) 
            | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) 
            | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right)));
            this.panel1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Maroon;
            this.panel1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 87);
            this.panel1.Name = "panel1";
            this.panel1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(599, 266);
            this.panel1.TabIndex = 0;
            // 
            // panel2
            // 
            this.panel2.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) 
            | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right)));
            this.panel2.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Coral;
            this.panel2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 353);
            this.panel2.Name = "panel2";
            this.panel2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(599, 86);
            this.panel2.TabIndex = 1;
            // 
            // panel3
            // 
            this.panel3.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) 
            | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right)));
            this.panel3.BackColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.ActiveCaption;
            this.panel3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0);
            this.panel3.Name = "panel3";
            this.panel3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(600, 86);
            this.panel3.TabIndex = 2;
            // 
            // Form2
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(600, 439);
            this.Controls.Add(this.panel3);
            this.Controls.Add(this.panel2);
            this.Controls.Add(this.panel1);
            this.Name = "Form2";
            this.Text = "Form2";
            this.ResumeLayout(false);

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.Panel panel1;
        private System.Windows.Forms.Panel panel2;
        private System.Windows.Forms.Panel panel3;
    }
}