How to auto size a form around a tab control + more controls

Question

Dear reader,

I have a form that has several controls:

• ProgressBar at the top of the form (docked)
• A TabControl at the top of the form (also docked but underneath the progress bar)
• Buttons, TextBoxes and labels inside TabPages of the TabControl
• FlowLayoutPanel at the bottom of the screen (docked) with a few buttons in it
• Label at the bottom of the form to act as separator (also docked, but above the FlowLayoutPanel)

I am trying to auto size the form to fit its content. What needs to happen is:

1. Tab pages wrap around its content
2. Tab control wraps around the largest tab page
3. The form wraps around the tab control, progress bar and buttons.

Here's an example of how the form looks without AutoSizeMode set to GrowAndShrink (just Grow):

And this is how it looks with AutoSizeMode set to GrowAndShrink:

Please advise.

Answer 1

To get this to work, you have to set the MinimumSize of all your controls to a value. This will be respected from the Shrink-Mode, thus leading to a well sized form.

Answer 2

Make sure the direct children of your form have anchors set exactly to Left and Top. You could set the Form.MinimumSize Property and Form.MaximumSize Property as a precaution.