Auto-size controls in .NET CF to avoid horizontal scrolling?

Question

I am developing a form in .NET Compact Framework, which hosts a variable number of controls. Every control should have the same width as the form. When there are only a few controls, no vertical scrollbar appears. When there are more controls than they can fit in one form, a vertical scrollbar appears. The width of the controls should then be modified, so that no horizontal scrollbar appears.

What is the best way to achieve this? I am interested in a solution that will work in all platforms/screen sizes and that can support screen orientation changes.

Answer 1

I did some quick testing, and it seems, when you add controls, the panel raises the resize event when the added control tiggers the scollbars to go visible. The annoying part is here that the resize event is triggered a couple of times during startup :( But knowing the compact framework, this might be your best shot at handling this.

Normally on the full framework you could if the DisplayRectangle is bigger than the size of the panel, but no such thing exists on the cf.

Hope this is of some help, I'll see if I can find anything more in the morning.

Answer 2

If I get this right, at one point, both a vertical and horizontal scrollbar appear, and you want only the vertical scrollbar? Doesn't setting the Anchor of each control to "Top|Left|Right" solve this problem automatically?

Answer 3

If every control is to be the same width as the form, why not just Dock every control to Top (or Bottom)? It'll take care of the resizing for you then. It might not look very attractive however, so I suggest adding in some empty Panels (docked the same way) to be used as vertical spacers.