Better method than mdi parent/child forms

[AlexJames]

Hi All

I'm relatively new to C# and 90% of my experience is in the older languages. I'm busy with a new WinForms C# project which simply has a docked panel on the main form with a bank of buttons to mimic a menu, when one of these menu buttons is clicked I just need to display a new form but with my left menu still visible and clickable. I was playing around with setting up the main form as the mdi parent and the forms to be shown as the child forms. This seems to work ok, but i have quite a bit of UI design and the child forms don't quite display as i would like. So my question really is, is there a better we to achieve this without using mdi parent and child forms ? i also believe that this method is out dated.

Many thanks.
AJ

 

[AlexJames]

Thank you all for the feedback, i'll test with these new recommendations today.

 

[AlexJames]

Hi All

I've tried a few things out but cant get rid of the visible resizing issue, I've done a fair amount of research and it seems generally accepted to show the user control in a panel. The code below works well, i'm now just trying to figure out how to close the user control form once its open.

                    UcDeposits uc = new UcDeposits();
                    PnlContainer.Controls.Add(uc);
                    uc.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
                    uc.BringToFront();

Thanks again.

 

[Skydiver]

Where is your code to suspend and resume layout like we recommended?

Where did you implement the recommendation to set the dock style before adding the control?

 

[AlexJames]

Hi Skydiver

After a lot of research and more planning on my app, I've decided to stick with my original plan of loading a form into a docked panel. The only downside i can find about using this method is memory usage, luckily the app is quite small and using WinForms will give me the control i'm looking for, so i don't think that will be too much of an issue. But a big thank you to both of you again, i went down a path of loads of research because of your guy's suggestions and learned loads.

regards
AJ.