Good resources for GUI creation in Visual Studio

Question

I'm working more and more with desktop applications, and my GUIs SUCK. I'm familiar with the basics of GUI design, but am having trouble putting them into practice.

What I'm looking for are good (or at least decent) guides to building (not designing!) a GUI in Visual Studio.

Failing that (I've not found much via the usual sources), I have to ask: is it possible/worth the effort to build a GUI with VS2K5's 'Design' view? That's what I've been largely using, since I'm a visual person.

Specifically, I am looking for help in the 'nuts & bolts' of IMPLEMENTING a completed design

I am not adverse to installing extra tools if needed, but my preference is to stick with things you get through a vanilla install of VS2k5 if possible.

Answer 1

If you already have your design layed out and planned, then implementing it should be the easy part. With WinForms, it really is drag and drop (and setting some properties, such as for docking and anchoring).

The trick I found that really helped getting through implementation is to completely and totally mock out the interface on paper. I mean EVERYTHING: every menu, button, label, grid, etc. should be sketched out. After that, it's just a matter of dragging the controls on to a form, renaming them to something sensible, and making sure that window sizing doesn't throw your controls out of place.

If you don't have a fully realized design to work from when creating the GUI, you will have a very hard time since you will still be making design decision that will get in the way of the construction.

EDIT: If you're willing to pay, http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/ has several videos on the topic of making simple GUIs for a basic application, usually oriented towards a particular control (DataGridView, ListView, etc.).