The Why and How of the SplitContainer Control
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The SplitContainer control in the .NET framework is a serious improvement over the Splitter control in an earlier version of the framework. To find out how Microsoft took a good thing and made it better, and how you can use it to build user interfaces in your applications. keep reading.
Introduction
When Microsoft added the Splitter in the .NET Framework 1.1 it was found to be very useful in designing a physical division in a form that can be resized easily. One immediate use was for creating an Explorer-like user interface with a treeview on one side and a listview on the other. What's even more impressive is that multi-panels which look like Microsoft Outlook's UIs could be easily designed. However, in the .NET 2 framework, Microsoft vastly improved this to bring in the SplitContainer control. In fact, the object browser picture you are seeing in this tutorial is a UI that makes use of this multiple panel structure.
SplitContainer Properties
The SplitContainer Class is a new class in .NET Framework 2.0. It belongs to the Layout category. It essentially divides the display area into two or more resizable parts. It belongs to the System.Windows. Forms name space; most classes in this name space are derived from the Control Class.
There are a large number of properties that are associated with the SplitContainer Control. A number of them can be configured as "Set" and "Get." There is no place better than the Object Browser to look at all the details.
SplitContainer Control
The SplitContainer Control was added in Visual Studio 2005 to the Toolbox. You will find this control in the VS 2005 Toolbox under the All Windows Forms menu as shown. There are two controls, the Splitter and the SplitContainer. The Splitter is still present for backward compatibility. In VS 2005, the use of SplitContainer is recommended.
Next: The two orientations of SplitContainer Controls >>
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