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Asked: 2026-05-14T06:33:06+00:00

I’m writing a standalone application in VB.NET using Visual Studio 2005. I want to

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I’m writing a standalone application in VB.NET using Visual Studio 2005.

I want to display/hide a bunch of Buttons based on the selected value of a ComboBox. Each selection would have a different set of Buttons to display, and I’d like to have them arranged in a nice grid.

Driving a TabControl with the ComboBox value would be the kind of behavior I want, but I don’t want it to look like a TabControl to the user because it might be confusing.

Is there a way to do this?

Basically, I’d like Selection1 of the ComboBox to show Buttons 1-4, Selection2 to show Buttons 5-11, Selection3 to show (maybe) Buttons 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8, etc., have them arranged nicely, and have the GUI show only the ComboBox and the buttons.

Thanks in advance as always!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Use a Panel control (or multiple if the items aren’t grouped right next to each other) and set the visibility accordingly.

    (Added)
    You CAN stack panels on top of each other, so that the buttons all look like they’re in the same location. but it becomes a maintenance nightmare and I don’t recommend it.,

    Hack warning – the following is a hack, but it works.

    Another option is to use a tab control, but hide the tab buttons. (You can do this by positioning a panel over the buttons, but you have to be careful of letting the user resize the form.) Then you set the TabIndex based on the drop-down changing.

    Edit again – added per comment

    If you use the hack, you can add this into the ComboBox’s selected index changed event….

    (code may be wrong, as I’m not at my dev pc and can’t check, but you get the idea)

    TabControl1.SelectedIndex = ComboBox1.SelectedIndex
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