Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2012 Unleashed, Second Edition

Chapter 18. Building Windows Forms Applications

In This Chapter

• The Basics of Form Design

• Creating a Form

• Adding Controls and Components

• Creating Your Own Controls

One of the core goals for Visual Studio is enabling rapid Windows Forms construction. Using the Windows Forms Designer, the Controls Toolbox, and the various common controls provided by the .NET Framework, this chapter serves as your guide to the drag-and-drop creation of rich form-based applications. Specifically, we look at how best to leverage the built-in capabilities of the Forms Designer and the Visual Studio project system to quickly build a baseline form from scratch.

We don’t worry about the code behind the form at this point; instead, the focus is on the user interface ...