reducing the size of the selection box around a winforms custom control

Question

I have a custom control based on the label control. My question is how do I change the selection box size around this custom control when a user selects it while in design mode. The need is the box is too large I need to make it smaller.

Also AutoSize set to true will not work in my case, the selection box is still too big.

Answer 1

The selection box in the designer is (and must be) dependent upon the size of your control. If you want to make it smaller, your control must be smaller. There is no way to control its size or position manually.

Answer 2

You would have to create a designer based on ControlDesigner for your control then use the DrawFocusRectangle method in the OnPaintAdornments event.

• ControlDesigner Class - Extends the design mode behavior of a Control at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.design.controldesigner.aspx.

• Extending Design-Time Support at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/37899azc.aspx

• ControlDesigner.OnPaintAdornments Method at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.design.controldesigner.onpaintadornments(VS.80).aspx

• ControlPaint.DrawFocusRectangle Method at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.controlpaint.drawfocusrectangle.aspx.