[RESOLVED] What's the best solution for overlapping multiple working areas?

Hello,

I need a solution for overlapping working areas. I have a menu strip with many options and when I click on a certain menu then I will have the corresponding options in one certain area of the form.

There are many menus so I will have many displays. I was thinking of designing lots of panels overlapping each other but then it will be extremely difficult to switch between them for design and so on...

I don't think it is a very good idea to do it like this.

I need something to be able to show \ hide at runtime but design them separately.

Please give me some ideas about the best way to do this. Maybe there are some controls that I haven't heard of...

Thx

Why not use a TabControl ?

Tab Control? Very difficult to work out quite what you mean, to be honest.

Tab control will end up with a lot of tabs that won't look good at all. I want to keep it as simple as possible so the user will not find this too difficult to work with.

Well you could use a TreeView in combination with composite UserControls. When you select and option in the TreeView you instantiate the relevant UserControl.

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Originally Posted by ovi_gm

Tab control will end up with a lot of tabs that won't look good at all. I want to keep it as simple as possible so the user will not find this too difficult to work with.

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That somewhat contradicts the many menus, many displays and overlapping work areas scenario, doesn't it? Simple as possible appears to be the direct opposite of that.

I did an app a while ago that used GROUPBOXES that would hide and display as needed. Each GB did a certain part of the business logic and they would appear and disappear as needed as the case moved through the office and also based on the permissions of the user. Seemed to work well.

How many areas are you going to put up and take down?

Overall container for the screen in general were a couple of split panel's - I've had really good luck with these (also with nesting them).

Well, there's no contradiction. I don't know yet how many menus there will be but... basically, I have 4 menus in a MenuStrip. These are categories of my app.

Then, clicking each menu brings up some big buttons with pictures in them. Then each of these button bring up another area. This area might be the last one or it might contain some other buttons, and so on...

I want to make the app to somehow guide the user through the entire process. So, as you can see, there is no contradiction. There are just very many menus and it will be really difficult working with panels.

Ok, I made a preliminary calculation. There will be approximate 30 working areas.

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Originally Posted by ovi_gm

Ok, I made a preliminary calculation. There will be approximate 30 working areas.

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:eek: They landed on the moon using a 12 button calculator!

What is that supposed to mean? I feel some kind of irony here for the second time... Can I get any serious guidance or not?

Ok....what version of Visual Studio you're using ?

I have the Visual Basic 2010 Express Version...

Here is an example of the UserControl approach I was talking about. You can tend each pane separately and unobstructed in design mode and have your code give them a tab-like relationship to one another at runtime.

I would second Niya's idea: it works well for a lot of applications. You can design your selector any way you like (tree view, icons, etc.) this approach has been used for over a decade, now. The treeview is nice because it will allow users to navigate to exactly where they want to go with as few clicks as possible.

Putting all your 'work' into user controls does allow you to encapsulate all the functionality from a practical, design and philosophical point.

Thx Niya, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I didn't know how this works but it's just what I needed. Doing it like this gives me the possibility to use as many working areas as I want.

Thx again.

Problem solved.

Glad I could help.

Please note that in my example the state of each option pane is not preserved between switches. Eg. If you selected a CheckBox in the second one and switch it to another pane and then switch back, the previous state would not be preserved. Its a simple matter of instantiating the panes only once and switching between these instances instead of creating new instances of them as I did. That would preserve the state in between switches.

Got it. Thx again. I really appreciate this...