You can use NonSerialized to exclude a field (not a property) from the
serializer.  If you are using the XmlSerializer you can use
XmlIgnore.  However, I can't find any way to exclude a property from
the CodeDomSerializer.  The problem I am trying to solve is that I
have Controls that have references to other controls.  I have used the
[NonSerialized] on several property to exclude the Control objects
from serialization and a bool property that indicates whether those
control references have been re-established after deserialization.

The control properties have a value of null that I want, but the bool
property has a value of true, when it should have a value of false.

So with a little debugging I noticed that without NonSerialized, the
serialization and deserialization would record and set public and
private fields in addition to public and private properties.  Field
were first, followed by properties.
Not having the NonSerialized set on the Control fields caused an
seriliazation exception as expected.  With, properites no exception
occurs, but no value is serialized.

So it appears to be by pure change that the Control properties are
working as I intended.  The boolean property on the other hand is
always serialized out, one way or the other. :(

All of these properties are part of an interface and you can not use
fields in interfaces, unless I'm missign something obvious and
wonderously useful...

So...  Any ideas on how to exclude properties from serialization,
besides coding my own serilization service and using the
XmlSerializer?  (Previous dev team attempted to use XmlSerializer and
said it didn't work, I have no real info on what didn't work though).

For additional context, serialization is used for cut/copy/paste/undo/
redo services.

       [NonSerialized]
       private bool controlsNormalized = false;
       public  bool ControlsNormalized {
           get { return controlsNormalized; }
           set { controlsNormalized = value; }
       }

       //
       // Don't serialize out, only used during design time.
       //
       [NonSerialized]
       private Control baseControl = null;
       public  Control BaseControl {
           get { return baseControl; }
           set { baseControl = value; }
       }
       //
       // This property is used with the auto Parser to serialize out
the control and to
       // deserialize the needed information to 'relink' to the
control in the designer.
       // Since there is no gaurantee that the control will have been
deserialized and added
       // to the designer before valdiation is deserialized, we need
a 2 step process.
       //
       private string baseControlName = "";
       public  string BaseControlName {
           get {
               if (BaseControl == null) {
                   return "";
               }

               return BaseControl.Name;
           }
           set { baseControlName = value; }
       }