Showing Forms In A Specific Way Dilemma [RESOLVED]

[JustAProg]

I have searched first and not found anything that matches what I'm after.

I'm doing the usual:
Click button on Form1 and show Form2
Click button on Form2 and back to Form1

That's all OK, trouble is, the controls and pictures and infact all the form does a quick sort of flicker when changing forms, yuk, now I have found away around it, which I have to do, but it's causing me some grief.

So initially what's happening is this:

Button clicked/form1 hide/form2 shown (showdialog)
Button clicked/form2 hide(disposed)/form1 shown

It's this gap from hide to show that's causing the flicker.

What I need is this:

Button (form1) clicked/form2 shown/form1 then hidden
Button (form2) clicked/form1 shown/form2 then hidden/disposed

Now I've done this and it looks much much better, just what I want, trouble is, lol, I get an extra form1 on the taskbar evertime I do it.

Does anyone know how to do what I'm after, remember it needs to do this:

Form1: Button Clicked - Form2 Shown - Form1 Hidden
Form2: Button Clicked - Form1 Shown - Form2 Hidden/Disposed

Thanks for anyones help.

[Slow_Learner]

Forms expose a .ShowInTaskbar property that you can modify at runtime.
ms-help://MS.VSCC/MS.MSDNVS/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwindowsformsformclassshowintaskbartopic.htm

so you could set form 2 to not show in taskbar, show the second form, then hide the first form, then set form 2 to show in taskbar.

[Lunatic3]

Trying this (in form1) I noticed no flicker.

Dim frm as New From2
Me.Hide
frm.Showdialog
Me.Show

You may also try this to hide form1 when form2 is loaded.

So you put this in form2

Dim frm As Form
#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
 
    Public Sub New(ByVal frm) 'ByVal frm As Form)
 
        MyBase.New()
        Me.frm = frm
        'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
        InitializeComponent()
 
        'Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call
 
End Sub
 
 Private Sub Form2_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        frm.Hide()
 
End Sub

and this in form1

Dim frm as New From2(Me)
frm.Showdialog
Me.Show

so you could set form 2 to not show in taskbar, show the second form, then hide the first form, then set form 2 to show in taskbar.

the problem is not showing in taks bar. The problem is he is producing a new form1 in his code.

[Slow_Learner]

Ah ha!

[JustAProg]

The first one is what I usually use, I just tried again, it has horrendous flicker, only when going to form 2 though, not back.

The last one gave me errors:
Dim frm As New Form2(me)

It wouldn't except the 'me'

I changed it to Dim frm As New Form2, ran it, then gave me a 'object/instance' error at the frm.hide in form2

[JustAProg]

For instance, this is the closest I've come:

In Form1 Button:

    Dim Form2 As New Form2
    Form2.Show()
    Me.Hide()

In Form2 Button:

    Dim Form1 As New Form1
    Form1.Show()
    Me.Close()

Now this actually works perfect, you dont see one form dissapear briefly before the other gets displayed, it's all smooth, as you would expect because a form is shown before the other hides.

Trouble is, even though I can't see them I must be making multiple form 1's everytime I display it as the prog wont then shut down and I have to use the 'STOP' in the IDE.

[Lunatic3]

The last one gave me errors:
Dim frm As New Form2(me)

It wouldn't except the 'me'

it means that you have not made the required changes in form2.

[JustAProg]

Yes you're right, I'd forgot the '(ByVal frm)'. Unfortunetly though it still didn't work, just done the same as the original method. I can still see the half a second or so of 'nothing' whilst one form dissapears before the other is drawn.

[Lunatic3]

You may also try this:

Instead of hiding the form1 in load event of form2
try to hide it in activated event:

Private Sub Form2_Activated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Activated
        Static isactive As Boolean
        If Not isactive Then
            frm.Hide()
            isactive = True
        End If
End Sub

[JustAProg]

Hi again.

That is sort of actually working. I now get a nice transistion to form2, but form2 only, still get the problem going back to form1.

[Lunatic3]

Actually i dont know if it makes any difference or not(i dont guess so), however try showing form1 in close event of form2.

Private Sub Form2_Closing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closing
        frm.Show()
End Sub

[JustAProg]

You genius, now that seems to work, can't mess too much at the moment, will later, I'll let ya know.

[JustAProg]

Yep, that does it, cool.

Cheers mate, it was really getting to me that one.