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.NET Forum / Windows Forms / WinForm General / March 2006How to create a top level control?
I'd like to create a control that's top-level, i.e. parented by the Windows desktop - something like a tooltip or menu. When I call SetTopLevel( true ) in my control, Windows Forms (or is it Windows?) creates a form and hosts my control in it! There must be an easy way to create a true top-level control in Windows Forms that isn't hosted/parented by a Windows Forms form. Help!? Cheers, MikeS. > I'd like to create a control that's top-level, i.e. parented by the > Windows desktop - something like a tooltip or menu. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > There must be an easy way to create a true top-level control in Windows > Forms that isn't hosted/parented by a Windows Forms form. Why must there? By definition a control must be in a form. Tooltips are not controls they are components (this is confused by the documentation that referes to them as controls in various places) that manipulate a top level window/form to which you have no direct access. I suspect that what you want is simply to create a form and turn off the borders and title (f.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None) Hi Nick I say "there must be an easy way" because, firstly, a form is a control, as a component is a control. To Windows, they're all just window handles. I've been programming Windows for 20+ years, since the Petzold days. So I expect there must be a way to create a control that doesn't have to be hosted in a form. Like I said, a *form* is a control that's not hosted in a form, so there is a way. If it's not easy, it must be because WinForms is going out of its way to make it not easy, since there's no intrinsic reason why it should be hard. Cheers, MikeS. >> I'd like to create a control that's top-level, i.e. parented by the >> Windows desktop - something like a tooltip or menu. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > I suspect that what you want is simply to create a form and turn off the > borders and title (f.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None) Have you looked at the NativeWindow class? Perhaps that will help you. Hi Mike, A Component is NOT a Control. Tooltip is a Component and therefore is not a control and has no handle. Obviously the visual bit that it controls does have a handle but you can't get at it and I see no reason to believe (other than simplicity) that it isn't a form with the border turned off. What about my suggestion of using a form with the border turned off? Or NativeWindow if you must. > Hi Nick > [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] >> I suspect that what you want is simply to create a form and turn off the >> borders and title (f.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None) Hi Nick Sorry, you're right about component. However, a form is a control and it can be top-level. As for using a form with no border - tried that! That's what my other thread is about "Zero-sized form" that you've been participating in :-) Ideally I just need a control, not a form though that obviously works. This is partly a learning exercise - I can do it easily in native Windows and I'm trying to figure out how to do it in WinForms. Thanks for your help. MikeS. > Hi Mike, > [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] >>> I suspect that what you want is simply to create a form and turn off the >>> borders and title (f.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None)
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