.NET Common Windows Forms Controls

In this tutorial we will learn about Common Windows Forms Controls in Visual Basic .NET 2005. IN this part 1 of this article, We will be learning the controls like Control Hierarchy, Label, LinkLabel, TextBox, RichTextBox, PictureBox, GroupBox, Panel, Button, CheckBox , RadioButton, ListBox, CheckedListBox and ComboBox.

Control Hierarchy

The base class for all Windows controls is located in the System.Windows.Forms namespace. These controls are built into the .NET framework and form the basis for derived controls. These controls have a distinct hierarchy of their own. For example the hierarchy of the control rich text box is given below:

Object

MarshalByRefObject

Component

Control

TextBoxBase

RichTextBox

We shall take a quick look at some of the properties of the control:

Some of the methods of the control are listed below:

Some of the events of the control are listed below:

The above list is not exhaustive. However, a designer would find it profitable to get himself acquainted with the properties and methods of the different types of controls that he uses. Derived controls are customized controls that use the .NET framework controls as a base for building upon.

Label

The Label control is used in a number of applications to indicate the nature of the input required or the name of a control or just to convey a message to the user. The autosize property of this control is true by default, but can be dynamically fixed. Since this control cannot receive focus, it can also be used to create access keys for other controls.

Let us see a demo for this activity:

• Draw the label first, and then draw the other control. Other wise draw the controls in any order and set the System.Windows.Forms.Control.TabIndex property of the label to one less than the other control.
  
• Set the label's System.Windows.Forms.Label.UseMnemonic property to true.
  
• Use an ampersand (&) in the label's System.Windows.Forms.Label.Text property to assign the access key for the label. For more information, see Creating Access Keys for Windows Forms Controls.
  
• The following code will accomplish the task. Press F5 and see the demo in action.
  

Click here for the Sample Code

The output of the above codes is shown in the screenshot pasted below:

Link Labels

This control is similar to the Label Control. In addition to all the properties, methods, and events of the Label control, the LinkLabel control has properties for hyperlinks and link colors. The LinkLabel.LinkArea property sets the area of the text that activates the link. The LinkLabel.LinkColor, LinkLabel.VisitedLinkColor, and LinkLabel.ActiveLinkColor properties set the colors of the link. The LinkLabel.LinkClicked event determines what happens when the link text is selected.

Link Labels are labels that support hyper links. Some of the important properties and events are given below:

The following code snippet demonstrates the usage of the link label.

Click here for the Sample Code

TextBox

The hierarchy of the control Text Box is given below:

Object

MarshalByRefObject

Component

Control

TextBoxBase

Text Box

This control is used mainly to collect user input of data and display text. The look and feel and the behavior can be controlled by manipulating the values of its properties, invoking some methods and also handling some of the events that this control is enabled to handle.

Some of the methods, properties and events of the text box are given below:

Next Page: .NET Common Windows Forms Controls Part 1 - Page 2