.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell

Name

Panel

Synopsis

This Control acts as a container for other controls. The usual reason for creating a Panel is to support a particular layout scheme. It also supports a BorderStyle.

Note that introducing a Panel starts to play havoc with the pseudotransparency supported by the framework (you will often see the background painted into the panel with (0,0) in client coordinates, rather than parent coordinates, which can cause trouble with panels inside group boxes, for example.

When you are creating your own classes, you should derive from UserControl rather than Panel. While the only superficial difference at this time is that you can set the BorderStyle of a Panel, a UserControl also offers design-time support.

public class Panel : ScrollableControl {

// Public Constructors

   public Panel();

// Public Instance Properties

   public BorderStyle BorderStyle{set; get; }

   public bool TabStop{set; get; }

// overrides Control

   public override string Text{set; get; }

// overrides Control

                  // Protected Instance Properties

   protected override CreateParams CreateParams{get; }

// overrides ScrollableControl

   protected override Size DefaultSize{get; }

// overrides Control

                  // Public Instance Methods

   public override string ToString();  // overrides System.ComponentModel.Component

                  // Protected Instance Methods

   protected override void OnResize(EventArgs eventargs);  // overrides Control

                  // Events

   public event KeyEventHandler KeyDown;

// overrides Control

   public event KeyPressEventHandler KeyPress;

// overrides ...