Professional Visual Studio 2012

Chapter 17

Windows Forms Applications

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Creating a new Windows Forms application
• Designing the layout of forms and controls using the Visual Studio designers and control properties
• Using container controls and control properties to ensure that your controls automatically resize when the application resizes

Since its earliest days, Visual Studio has excelled at providing a rich visual environment for rapidly developing Windows applications. From simple drag-and-drop procedures to place graphical controls onto the form, to setting properties that control advanced layout and behavior of controls, the designer built into Visual Studio 2012 provides you with immense power without having to manually create the UI from code.

This chapter walks you through the rich designer support and comprehensive set of controls available for you to maximize your efficiency when creating Windows Forms applications.

GETTING STARTED

The first thing you need to start is to create a new Windows Forms project. Select the File ⇒ New ⇒ Project menu to create the project in a new solution. If you have an existing solution to which you want to add a new Windows Forms project, select File ⇒ Add ⇒ New Project.

Windows Forms applications can be created with either VB or C#. In both cases, the Windows Forms Application project template is the default selection when you open the New Project dialog box and select the Windows category, as shown in Figure 17-1.

FIGURE 17-1

The New Project ...