How to properly dock to the right a form to a MDI in a Windows Form application?

Question

I am adding to a MDI a side bar form (not a child) and docking it to the right. The top of the side bar appears to overlapping the toolbar. When doing a manual resizing (by dragging), the side bar is "magically" looks fine.

Before resizing:

After Resizing:

public partial class MDI : Form
{
    private void InitGenealogicalTree()
    {
        var form = new GenealogicalTreeForm();            
        form.TopLevel = false;
        form.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
        form.Dock = DockStyle.Right;
        this.Controls.Add(form);
    }
}

Note: The ToolStrip was added in design mode.

How can I properly add the side bar form without having it overlapping the toolbar?

Reza Aghaei · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-23T14:10:29.470

1

A side-bar windows should not be movable and should not be resizeable and should not be maximize-able, so:

Set FormBorderStyle to FixedToolWindow.

Override WndProc of the side-bar window WndProc to prevent move and prevent maximize:

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
    const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
    const int SC_MOVE = 0xf010;
    const int SC_MAXIMIZE = 0xf030;
    if (m.Msg == WM_SYSCOMMAND)
    {
        int command = m.WParam.ToInt32() & 0xfff0;
        if (command == SC_MOVE || command == SC_MAXIMIZE)
            return;
    }
    base.WndProc(ref m);
}

Also when adding the side-bar, bring it to front. It means first toolbar should be docked, then the side-bar windows will be docked in the remaining area:
```
this.Controls.Add(sideBar);
sideBar.BringToFront();
```

edited Jan 23 '19 at 14:10

answered Jan 23 '19 at 14:04

Reza Aghaei

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Wow, thank you for open mind. I didn't though how I will prevent from moving it. Thanks – ehh Jan 23 '19 at 14:20
You're welcome :) For such multi-window UI, I prefer to not use MDI. Instead, create a multi-tab UI. Each child form will be added as borderless child in a new Tab, you can show [close button on tab](https://stackoverflow.com/a/36900582/3110834). The sidebar is also a form which is hosted in a docked panel to the right. You can also use a splitter between the side panel and the tabcontrol to allow resizing the sidebar. – Reza Aghaei Jan 23 '19 at 14:24

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 23 '19 at 14:04

Just put a panel in desigenermode where you want to have your sidepanel and display the sidepanel in the panel.

The following codes lets you display the side bar form in the panel:

var form = new GenealogicalTreeForm();            
form.TopLevel = false;
panel.Controls.Add(form);
form.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
this.Controls.Add(form);
form.Show();

How to properly dock to the right a form to a MDI in a Windows Form application?

2 Answers2