Example of custom forms

[NicoVB]

Does anyone know where you can find examples of custom designed forms that do not look like normal forms in .NET. (an example: MSN explorer windows have a special look).

Do you have to inherit from the Form object, but what then???

 

[NicoVB]

There has to be such a things created by good people on the net

 

[TheIrishCoder]

Do you mean custom shaped forms? If so there I can give you some code to do that if you wish.

 

[NicoVB]

Yes, I mean custom shaped forms. But with a selfmade titlebar. An other buttons for hiding, resizing and exiting the form.

But the problem I have, is that when you set the formborderstyle from the form to: None, you have problems with resizing your form!!!. And that is not so very good.

 

[TheIrishCoder]

Well the best way to create a shaped form is to use a bitmap or draw a shape with a graphics object, and set the rest of the form a uniform color set to transparent and as you say setting the formborderstyle to none. You can subclass the form to make windows think you are clicking on the titlebar when actually clicking on the form so that it can moved. You do this by overiding the WndProc method of the form class:-

Protected Overides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
MyBase.WndProc(m)
If m.Msg = WM_NCHITTEST then
If m.Result.ToInt32 = HTCLIENT then
m.Result = New IntPtr(HTCAPTION)
End If
End If
End Sub

Now clicking anywhere on the form allows you to move it. Im sure there is a way of implementing resizing but Im not aware how to do it but quite often with a shaped form you might just not allow it to be resized. If you discover how to implement it you will have to resize the bitmap/graphics object at the same time.

 

[NicoVB]

Okay, thanks for this information, and ill keep search for the resizing thing. But I think it should work with the MouseDown and MouseMove event.

 

[Divil]

Youd be better advised to use TheIrishCoders method, rather than MouseMove etc events. Let Windows do its own moving.

 

[NicoVB]

Okay, but does this solve also the problem for really resizing the window by pulling in the corner of the form??

I thought TheIrishCoder only find a solution for the problem with the titlebar..

??

 

[Divil]

Thats right. I dont know how youd use Windows resizing since you turned off the borders. You might have to do it manually.

 

[NicoVB]

Okay, now all is clear to me, so I will try to do this manually.

Thanks all!!