Question

I’m writing a windows application using VS2010 and C# 4.0. I have a MDI Parent form, and I need to have a “settings panel” at the bottom of it. I used a borderless form for this purpose. But now while the application is running, when I maximize a child form it overlaps the settings panel. How can I avoid that? My settings panel should always be visible and never overlapped by anything else.

Answer 1

Do not use a Form for this. You should be using a simple Panel. Follow these simple steps:

1. Set your main form’s IsMdiContainer to false.
2. Add a Panel to your main Form and dock it to the bottom (or whatever option you prefer, left, right, etc.). This pannel will be your settings panel.
3. Set your main form’s IsMdiContainer back to true.
4. Add all relevant controls to your settings panel which will always be visible.

Steps 3 and 4 can be done in any order.

The reason to first set the IsMdiContainer to false is to make sure you can dock your Panel inside the client space of the Form and not to inside client space of the MdiContainer control (which is automatically added by the designer when you set IsMdiContainer to true with it’s docking set to Fill). If you were to dock it inside the MdiContainer the Panel would be hidden by any MdiChild you were to open. Note that you can not interact directly with the MdiContainer control in the designer.