Creating tab pages in Visual Studio .NET

You can use the designer to modify a TabControl instance along with its TabPage instances. First you will need to add the control to the toolbox by right-clicking the toolbox window and selecting the customize option. Navigate to the appropriate directory and select the Magic Library DLL. The toolbox will now list the extra controls that are exposed by the library including the TabControl. Drag and drop a new instance onto your Form and select the TabPages property.

This will cause a dialog to appear that allows the creation and removal of pages to the control instance. It also allows you to modify the properties for each page added. Dismiss this dialog and you can now click on the control tabs in order to select the page you want to configure. As the TabPage class is derived from the Panel class you can now drag and drop other controls onto the page as desired. The designer will automatically generate the code needed to cause this configuration to be persisted as code in your Form.

Creating your TabControl manually

If you prefer to create your TabControl manually then use the following simple example.

   Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl tab1 = 
        new Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl();

Here is an example that shows the collection being manipulated: -

   Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl tab = 
        new Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl();

   Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabPage tabPage1 = 
        new Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabPage();
   Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabPage tabPage2 = 
        new Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabPage();



   // Add a range of pages to the collection
   tab.TabPages.AddRange(new TabPage[] pages{tabPage1, tabPage2});

   // Remove all the contents
   tab.TabPages.Clear();

   // Add a single entry
   tab.TabPages.Add(tabPage1);

   // Insert a single entry at a given position
   tab.TabPages.Insert(0, tabPage2);

   // Use index accessor for retrieving a page reference
   Console.WriteLine("TabPages[0] name = {0}", 
        tab.TabPages[0].Text);

   // Test if the collection contains an entry
   Console.WriteLine("Contains tabPage1 = {0}", 
        tab.TabPages.Contains(tabPage1));

   // Gain access to a Page by its Title
   Console.WriteLine("Contains a named page? {0}", 
        tab.TabPages["Page1"] != null);

   // Remove by object reference
   tab.TabPages.Remove(tabPage1);

   // Remove by index
   tab.TabPages.RemoveAt(0);

The three possible values for the property are VisualAppearance.MultiDocument, VisualAppearance.MultiForm and VisualAppearance.MultiBox. The first of these will place the page tabs at the top of the control and show both arrow and close buttons. An example use of this would be to control which of a group of documents is displayed. For example, use this appearance to achieve the same effect as the Visual Studio .NET control that contains the open documents.

The second appearance VisualAppearance.MultiForm places the page tabs at the bottom of the control and does not show any buttons. Instead all the tabs are sized to fit within whatever width the control is defined as. Use this appearance to mimic the style of tab control seen in Visual Studio .NET inside docking windows.

Use the third appearance VisualAppearance.MultiBox to create the high contrast appearance you get when editing an HTML document in Visual Studio .NET, where the document has two options at the bottom of the window.

Once the appearance has been set the developer can still modify the other properties to alter the exact look and feel wanted. For example, the PositionTop property could be used to shift the default position of the tabs for the MultiForm appearance from the bottom of the control to the top. Use the SampleTabControl project included in the library to experiment and achieve the look required.

To see how to hook into these events see the following code: -

   public void SomeMethod()
   {
      Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl tab = 
            new Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl();

      tab.ClosePressed += new EventHandler(OnClosePressed);
      tab.SelectionChanged += new EventHandler(OnSelectionChanged);

	  ...
   }

   protected void OnClosePressed(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
      Console.WriteLine("OnClosePressed");
   }

   protected void OnSelectionChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
      Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl tab = 
        (Crownwood.Magic.Controls.TabControl)sender;
  
      Console.WriteLine("New selection = {0}", tab.SelectedIndex);
   }

public void MakePageVisible(int index)
As above method but takes an index rather than TabPage reference.

public TabPage TabPageFromPoint(Point mousePos)
Find the TabPage using the client based mouse position.

• VisualAppearance.MultiDocument shows tabs at top with scrolling/close buttons
• VisualAppearance.MultiForm shows tabs at bottom without buttons and shrinks tabs to fit space
• VisualAppearance.MultiBox shows tabs at bottom in high contrast colors

public virtual TabPagesCollection TabPages
Provides access to the list of tab pages.

public virtual VisualStyle Style
Has two possible values.

• VisualStyle.IDE shows in Visual Studio .NET style
• VisualStyle.Plain shows in a simpler Visual C++ v6 style

public virtual bool Multiline When there are too many tabs to fit on a single line, should multiple lines be shown.
Default: False

public virtual bool MultilineFullWidth Should all lines stretch to fit whole line length, or just those lines that are full.
Default: False

public override Font Font
Defines the Font used for drawing the tab page text.
Default: SystemInformation.MenuFont

public override Color BackColor
Defines the Color used for drawing background areas in the control.
Default: SystemColors.Control

public override Color ForeColor
Defines the Color used for drawing foreground areas in the control
Default: base.DefaultForeColor

public virtual Color ButtonActiveColor
Defines the Color used for drawing arrows/close buttons when they are active.
Default: Color.FromArgb(128, this.ForeColor)

public virtual Color ButtonInactiveColor
Defines the Color used for drawing arrows/close buttons when they are inactive.
Default: Color.FromArgb(128, this.ForeColor)

public virtual bool HotTrack
When defined the text of the page under the mouse will be highlighted in HotTextColor.
Default: false

public virtual Color HotTextColor
Color is used to highlight text when the page is under the mouse and the HotTrack property set.
Default: SystemColors.ActiveCaption

public virtual Color TextColor
Color for drawing the text of tab pages.
Default: this.DefaultForeColor

public virtual Color TextInactiveColor
Color for drawing the text of tab pages.
Default: Color.FromArgb(128, this.DefaultForeColor)

public virtual PopupMenu ContextPopupMenu Instance of a PopupMenu to the shown when right-click occurs in tabs area.
Default: null

public virtual ImageList ImageList
Used when a TabPage has ImageIndex defined but not ImageList.
Default: null

public virtual bool PositionTop
When defined this will show the tab pages at the top of the control, otherwise at the bottom.
Default: false

public virtual bool ShrinkPagesToFit
When defined will reduce the size of the tab page so that all tabs fit inside control width.
Default: false

public virtual bool BoldSelectedPage
Should the text for the selected page be drawn in bold.
Default: true

public virtual nt SelectedIndex
Returns the index into the TabPages collection of the currently selected page.
Set this value to change the current selection.
Default: -1

public virtual TabPage SelectedTab
Returns the TabPage from the TabPages collection of the currently selected page.
Set this value to change the current selection.
Default: null

public virtual bool ShowClose
When defined the close button will appear on far right of the control.
Default: false

public virtual bool ShowArrows
When defined the left and right arrows will appear on far right of the control.
Default: false

public virtual bool InsetPlain
When the VisualStyle.Plain style is defined this determines if the control area is flat or bumped.
Default: true

public virtual bool SelectedTextOnly
When defined only the selected tab has its text drawn.
Default: false

public virtual HideTabsModes HideTabsMode
Determines when the tabs area should be made visible. Has four values.

• HideTabsModes.ShowAlways show tabs area all the time
• HideTabsModes.HideAlways hides tabs area all the time
• HideTabsModes.HideUsingLogic hides unless two or more pages exist
• HideTabsModes.HideWithoutMouse hides unless mouse is over control

public virtual int LeaveTimeout
Delay when mouse leaves tab control before tabs area is shown again. Use when then HideTabsMode is defined to be HideWithoutMouse.
Default: 200ms

public virtual bool DragFromControl
Generates page dragging events when the user drags a page outside of the control area. When this property is set to False then it generates the event sequence when the page is dragged outside the double-click box from the mouse down position.
Default: True

public virtual bool DragOverSelect
When an external drag moves over the tab headres this property determines if the page under the mouse becomes selected. There is a short delay between hovering over and selecting the page to prevent rapid flickering when using multiple lines.
Default: True

public virtual bool HoverSelect
When defined the selected tab will change whenever the mouse moves over a new tab.
Default: false

public virtual int ControlLeftOffset
Defines how far from the Left edge the tab controls should be indented.
Default: 0

public virtual int ControlTopOffset
Defines how far from the Top edge the tab controls should be indented.
Default: 0

public virtual int ControlRightOffset
Defines how far from the Right edge the tab controls should be indented.
Default: 0

public virtual int ControlBottomOffset
Defines how far from the Bottom edge the tab controls should be indented.
Default: 0

public virtual bool InsetBorderPagesOnly
When in Plain style it will only show the inset border nearest the tabs and not all four borders.
Default: False

public virtual bool RecordFocus
Remembers which Control had focus when a different page is selected and restores it when page is reselected.
Default: True

public virtual bool IDEPixelBorder
When the IDE visual style is selected this places a single pixel border around the entire control.
Default: False

public virtual bool IDEPixelArea
When the IDE visual style is selected this places a single pixel border on outside edge of tabs area.
Default: False

public event EventHandler SelectionChanging
Fired whenever a change in tab selection is about to occur.

public event EventHandler SelectionChanged
Fired whenever a change in tab selection occurs.

public event EventHandler PageGotFocus
Fired whenever focus arrives on a tab page control.

public event EventHandler PageLostFocus
Fired whenever focus leaves a tab page control.

public event MouseEventHandler PageDragStart
Fired when the user drags a page tab using the mouse outside the client area.

public event MouseEventHandler PageDragMove
Fired when the mouse moves and currently in page dragging mode.

public event MouseEventHandler PageDragEnd
Fired when the mouse is released when in page dragging mode.

public event DoubleClickTabHandler DoubleClickTab
Fired whenever a mouse double click occurs on a page tab.

Delegate Signatures

    void DoubleClickTabHandler(TabControl sender, TabPage page);