MessageBox.Show()

Question

I would like to Show my Messagebox in the center of its parent form. if i move the form and show the messagebox, it always show in the center of the desktop. i want it to appear along with the form. Can you give me some tricks and advice?

Answer 1

Set the owner of the message box window to your window (using the first parameter of .Show()), instead of not setting an owner.

See here for a reference.

Answer 2

I have done this before in C#. Here's what I remember.

Define a class:

public class IWindowWrapper : System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window
{
    public IWindowWrapper(IntPtr handle)
    {
        this.Handle= handle;
    }

    public IntPtr Handle
    {
        get; 
        set;
    }
}

Define a class based on MessageBox. Create a class based on MessageBox and create a new Show method :

public string Show(IWin32Window owner)
{
   if(owner == null)
   {
    this.ShowDialog();
   }
   else
   {
      //parentWindow.
      this.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterParent;
      this.ShowDialog(owner);
   }

}

In your calling code (here it is assumed to be a winform and msgBox is based on the new message box class) call the new Show method and pass an IWindowWrapper instance on Show e.g.

msgBox.Show(new IWindowWrapper(this.Handle))

Answer 3

The best way to do this is to use Window Hooks and center the message box yourself. There is a perfect article which shows this usage.

You can find it here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dialog/CenterDialog.aspx

You can also use the class in your application without diving in too deep to find out how it actually works.