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How to: Align a Control to the Edges of Forms

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You can make your control align to the edge of your forms by setting the Dock property. This property designates where your control resides in the form. The Dock property can be set to the following values:

Setting Effect on your control

Bottom

Docks to the bottom of the form.

Fill

Fills all remaining space in the form.

Left

Docks to the left side of the form.

None

Does not dock anywhere, and it appears at the location specified by its Location property.

Right

Docks to the right side of the form.

Top

Docks to the top of the form.

There is design-time support for this feature in Visual Studio.

Topic Location
How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features .NET Framework: Application Development
How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features .NET Framework: Application Development
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Walkthrough: Serializing Collections of Standard Types with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
How to: Provide a Toolbox Bitmap for a Control Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from Existing Windows Forms Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Debugging Custom Windows Forms Controls at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the Control Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Test the Run-Time Behavior of a UserControl Windows Forms Controls
How to: Align a Control to the Edges of Forms at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the UserControl Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Controls for Windows Forms Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Composite Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
How to: Display a Control in the Customize Toolbox Dialog Box Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Serializing Collections of Standard Types with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
How to: Provide a Toolbox Bitmap for a Control Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from Existing Windows Forms Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Debugging Custom Windows Forms Controls at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the Control Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Test the Run-Time Behavior of a UserControl Windows Forms Controls
How to: Align a Control to the Edges of Forms at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the UserControl Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Controls for Windows Forms Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Composite Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features .NET Framework: Application Development
How to: Display a Control in the Customize Toolbox Dialog Box Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Serializing Collections of Standard Types with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
How to: Provide a Toolbox Bitmap for a Control Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from Existing Windows Forms Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Debugging Custom Windows Forms Controls at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the Control Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Test the Run-Time Behavior of a UserControl Windows Forms Controls
How to: Align a Control to the Edges of Forms at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the UserControl Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Controls for Windows Forms Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Composite Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the UserControl Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features .NET Framework: Application Development
How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features .NET Framework: Application Development
How to: Display a Control in the Choose Toolbox Items Dialog Box Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Serializing Collections of Standard Types with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
How to: Provide a Toolbox Bitmap for a Control Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from Existing Windows Forms Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Debugging Custom Windows Forms Controls at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the Control Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Test the Run-Time Behavior of a UserControl Windows Forms Controls
How to: Align a Control to the Edges of Forms at Design Time Windows Forms Controls
How to: Inherit from the UserControl Class Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Controls for Windows Forms Windows Forms Controls
How to: Author Composite Controls Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Authoring a Composite Control with Visual C# Windows Forms Controls
Walkthrough: Inheriting from a Windows Forms Control with Visual Basic Windows Forms Controls

To set the Dock property for your control at run time

  • Set the Dock property to the appropriate value in code.

    ' To set the Dock property internally.
Me.Dock = DockStyle.Top
' To set the Dock property from another object.
UserControl1.Dock = DockStyle.Top

    // To set the Dock property internally.
this.Dock = DockStyle.Top;
// To set the Dock property from another object.
UserControl1.Dock = DockStyle.Top;

    // To set the Dock  property internally.
this.set_Dock(DockStyle.Top);
// To set the Dock property from another object.
UserControl1.set_Dock(DockStyle.Top);

See Also

Tasks

How to: Anchor and Dock Child Controls in a FlowLayoutPanel Control
How to: Anchor and Dock Child Controls in a TableLayoutPanel Control

Reference

System.Windows.Forms.Control.Dock
System.Windows.Forms.Control.Anchor

Concepts

AutoSize Property Overview

Other Resources

Developing Custom Windows Forms Controls with the .NET Framework