Start up position of MDI Children Forms

Hi.

I have a project with a MDI parent and children forms. I want each child form to be displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the Parent form when it is activated. However, I can't figure out how to do this. The forms are displayed at various places on the parent form when they are loaded.

Anyone have any ideas on how to change this?

Thanks.

On the properties of the child form, set the Top and Left properties to '0' and the Startup-Position property to '0-Manual'

In the Form_Load event of the child form just add:

Code:

---

Me.Move 0, 0

---

Good luck!

for the replies Tim and Joacim.

FYI, Tim, your advice didn't work for some reason, but Joacim's did.

All the best.

TimC's method works fine.

Code:

---

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Me.Left = 0
    Me.Top = 0
End Sub

---

TimC's method didn't work for me because I changed the properties at design-time rather than run-time? Either way, I accomplished my objective.

Question. When I design a program, and I position the forms using the little property window, so that they appear where I want them to, isn't that Design-Time. And when I use code to have them move while the program is running, isn't that Run-Time? Or am I using the wrong definitions. I am new to this, and if I would like to know if I am not thinking about this correctly.

Hi TimC,

Quote:

---

Question. When I design a program, and I position the forms using the little property window, so that they appear where I want them to, isn't that Design-Time. And when I use code to have them move while the program is running, isn't that Run-Time?

---

Your understanding of design-time and run-time are correct. :) My problem was that, for some reason, when my program executed, the forms didn't appear where I placed them in the Form Layout window. :confused: Thus, I had to position them in code.

All the best.

The reason you can't assign the form positon during design time is because a MDI form always position child forms in a cascading fashion by default. It also changing the size of the child forms.

Oh...Thanks for the explanation Joacim.

I was looking over some code from projects and I do also set my child forms position run-time:

Me.Left = 0
Me.top = 0

Or to whatever position I want them. I do remember having some trouble positioning them. I do believe you can stop them from being resized by changing the border property. I was having trouble with that, and that did stop that from happening. Although I believe I am getting off topic....

This is a helpful topic for me, but, how can I set the postion of a form at start up, relative to the position of the "parent" form, whatever that may be?
Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

I don't know much about working with MDI Forms (I started this post, remember :)), but this should accomplish what you're looking for.

Code:

---

Private Sub MDIForm_Load()
    MDIForm1.Move 0, 0
    Load Form1
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Form1.Move 0, 0
    Form1.Left = MDIForm1.Left + 100
    Form1.Top = MDIForm1.Top + 100
End Sub

---

I played around with it a little and the Move statements were helpful in making sure that everything fell into place.

I hope this helps.

Actually what the Move method is doing is setting the Left, Top, Width and Height properties (if you pass all optional arguments).
So a statement like this:

Code:

---

Me.Move 0, 0

---

Is equal to:

Code:

---

Me.Left = 0
Me.Top = 0

---

An other exemple:

Code:

---

Me.Move 0, 0, frmMdi.ScaleWidth, frmMdi.ScaleHeight

---

Is equal to:

Code:

---

Me.Left = 0
Me.Top = 0
Me.Width = frmMdi.ScaleWidth
Me.Height = frmMdi.ScaleHeight

---

Thanks for your help
I've now got the form doing exactly what I want. I've also found that you can use the screen object to position the forms so they never go off the edge of the screen. This is useful if a form is modal when its loaded, because you want it to be accessible.
eg:

If Me.Left > Screen.Width - Me.Width Then
Me.Left = Screen.Width - Me.Width
End If

Regards
Steve

ME.Move = 0,0 or Me.top =0
Me.left=0