• Control, User Control, and Form

Most classes within the System.Windows.Forms namespace derive from the Control class. The Control class provides the base functionality for all controls that are displayed on a Form. The Form class represents a window within an application. This includes dialog boxes, modeless windows, and Multiple Document Interface (MDI) client and parent windows. You can also create your own controls by deriving from the UserControl class.

• Menus and Toolbars

Windows Forms contains a rich set of classes for creating your own custom toolbars and menus with modern appearance and behavior (look and feel). ToolStrip, MenuStrip, ContextMenuStrip, and StatusStrip can be used to create toolbars, menu bars, context menus, and status bars, respectively.

• Controls

The System.Windows.Forms namespace provides a variety of control classes that you can use to create rich user interfaces. Some controls are designed for data entry within the application, such as TextBox and ComboBox controls. Other controls display application data, such as Label and ListView. The namespace also provides controls for invoking commands within the application, such as Button. The WebBrowser control and managed HTML classes, such as HtmlDocument, let you display and manipulate HTML pages within your managed Windows Forms application. The MaskedTextBox control is an advanced data entry control that lets you define masks that automatically accept or reject user input. Additionally, you can use the PropertyGrid control to create your own Windows Forms Designer that displays the designer-visible properties of the controls.

• Layout

Several important classes in Windows Forms help control the layout of controls on a display surface, such as a form or control. FlowLayoutPanel lays out all the controls it contains in a serial manner, and TableLayoutPanel lets you define cells and rows for laying out controls in a fixed grid. SplitContainer divides your display surface into two or more adjustable parts.

• Data and Data Binding

Windows Forms defines a rich architecture for binding to data sources such as databases and XML files. The DataGridView control provides a customizable table for displaying data, and lets you customize cells, rows, columns, and borders. The BindingNavigator control represents a standardized way to navigate and work with data on a form; BindingNavigator is frequently paired with the BindingSource control to move through data records on a form and interact with them.

• Components

Besides controls, the System.Windows.Forms namespace provides other classes that do not derive from the Control class but still provide visual features to a Windows-based application. Some classes, such as ToolTip and ErrorProvider, extend the capabilities or provide information to the user. With the Help and HelpProvider classes, you can display Help information to a user of your applications.

• Common Dialog Boxes

Windows provides several common dialog boxes that you can use to give your application a consistent user interface when performing tasks such as opening and saving files, manipulating the font or text color, or printing. The OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog classes provide the functionality to display a dialog box that lets the user locate and enter the name of a file to open or save. The FontDialog class displays a dialog box to change elements of the Font used by your application. The PageSetupDialog, PrintPreviewDialog, and PrintDialog classes display dialog boxes that enable the user to control aspects of printing documents. For more information about printing from a Windows-based application, see the System.Drawing.Printing namespace. Besides the common dialog boxes, the System.Windows.Forms namespace provides the MessageBox class for displaying a message box that can display and retrieve data from the user.