How do you limit a Form's container area without changing the sze?

[Guest]

Basically I have a form that is 400w and 400h in pixels. I want all children
added (either by the designer or programatically) to be layed out within say
a 300w x 300h sub area, so that the outlying 100x100 pixels are ignored as a
container but still available for me to paint on.

Make sense? I basically want to create the concept of client size but within
the client area, so a sub-client area..

 

[Bob Powell [MVP]]

You could either handle the WM_NCCREATE message and change the relationship
of the client size to the window size or write a custom layout manager that
re-arranges your controls according to your needs.

If you go for the former you can override WM_NCPAINT too. This will enable
you to draw in the 100 pixel non-client borderarea.

--
Bob Powell [MVP]
Visual C#, System.Drawing

Ramuseco Limited .NET consulting
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[Guest]

Thanks for the tip on WM_NCCREATE. Regarding doing painting in the NC area, I
am highly dubious since I've never been able to figure out how to make it
work 100% of the time. I often see anomolies where the regular windows
painting routines leak through in certain areas of the titlebar, and I see
this even in professional skinning products like WindowsBlinds. I just don't
trust the technique.

That is why I'm trying to create my own custom non client area.