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AutoSizeMode Enumeration

Specifies how a control will behave when its AutoSize property is enabled.

Namespace:  System.Windows.Forms
Assembly:  System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

'Declaration
Public Enumeration AutoSizeMode
'Usage
Dim instance As AutoSizeMode

Member nameDescription
GrowAndShrinkThe control grows or shrinks to fit its contents. The control cannot be resized manually.
GrowOnlyThe control grows as much as necessary to fit its contents but does not shrink smaller than the value of its Size property. The form can be resized, but cannot be made so small that any of its contained controls are hidden.

Setting the GrowAndShrink value produces the same behavior that you get for controls with the AutoSize property enabled but which have no

AutoSizeMode property. The MinimumSize and MaximumSize properties are respected, but the current value of the Size property is ignored.

The following code example shows a form created using code that automatically resizes to fit its contents. When ran, the form will display a Label, a TextBox for entering a URL, and a Button for displaying that URL inside of the user's default Web browser. The code example uses a FlowLayoutPanel to lay out the contained controls one after the other, and sets the AutoSize and AutoSizeMode to grow and shrink to fit the contents of its form.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
    Me.AutoSize = True 
    Me.AutoSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink
    Me.Text = "URL Opener"

    flowPanel = New FlowLayoutPanel()
    flowPanel.AutoSize = True
    flowPanel.AutoSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink
    Me.Controls.Add(flowPanel)

    urlLabel = New Label()
    urlLabel.Name = "urlLabel"
    urlLabel.Text = "URL:"
    urlLabel.Width = 50
    urlLabel.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter
    flowPanel.Controls.Add(urlLabel)

    urlTextBox = New TextBox()
    urlTextBox.Name = "urlTextBox"
    urlTextBox.Width = 250
    flowPanel.Controls.Add(urlTextBox)

    urlButton = New Button()
    urlButton.Name = "urlButton"
    urlButton.Text = "Open URL in Browser"
    flowPanel.Controls.Add(urlButton)
End Sub 


Private Sub urlButton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles urlButton.Click
    Try 
        Dim newUri As New Uri(urlTextBox.Text)
    Catch uriEx As UriFormatException
        MessageBox.Show(("Sorry, your URL is malformed. Try again. Error: " + uriEx.Message))
        urlTextBox.ForeColor = Color.Red
        Return 
    End Try 

    ' Valid URI. Reset any previous error color, and launch the URL in the  
    ' default browser. 
    ' NOTE: Depending on the user's settings, this method of starting the 
    ' browser may use an existing window in an existing Web browser process. 
    ' To get around this, start up a specific browser instance instead using one of 
    ' the overloads for Process.Start. You can examine the registry to find the 
    ' current default browser and launch that, or hard-code a specific browser.
    urlTextBox.ForeColor = Color.Black
    Process.Start(urlTextBox.Text)
End Sub

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
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