Resize Controls with Form Resize

Question

I have read several stack overflow questions without finding a good working solution to my problem. How can I resize my controls whenever the form is resized? I would like them to get larger or smaller when the form becomes larger or smaller.

In visual basic this was quite easy to do with the form.Zoom property (which did't really require resizing controls of course, but solved what I needed). Unfortunately this is not available in C# winforms.

Here is some other things I have tried without luck:

private void formMain_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
{/*
double scale;
this.scaleWidth = (float)this.Width / (float)this.origWidth;
this.scaleHeight = (float)this.Height / (float)this.origHeight;
if (this.scaleHeight > this.scaleWidth)
{
    scale = this.scaleHeight;
}
else
{
    scale = this.scaleWidth;
}

foreach (Control control in this.Controls)
{
    control.Height = (int)(control.Height * this.scaleHeight);
    control.Width = (int)(control.Width * this.scaleWidth);
    this.Refresh();
    //  control.Font = new Font("Verdana", control.Font.SizeInPoints * heightRatio * widthRatio);
}
///////This scaling didnt work for me either
//this.Scale(new SizeF(this.scaleWidth, this.scaleHeight));
//this.Refresh();
*/
}

If I overlooked an actualy working sample of code on another stack overflow question I would love to see it, but the ones I found were similar to those above which are not working.

Perhaps I was misusing it and someone could post sample code to show for those of us who keep asking this question how to go about solving the problem.

Also, I have tried using some of the anchor/docking tools thinking they would automatically allow it but it didn't.

Answer 1

The best option is to use a TableLayoutPanel. Put TableLayoutPanel on the form, set the Dock property to Fill, create required rows and columns and put the controls inside the cells. Of course you need to set Dock/Anchor on the controls inside the cells, so they respond to changes to the cell size. In some situations you may need to put a Panel into a cell and drop the controls inside it, because every cell can only contain a single control. You may also need to set RowSpan/ColumnSpan on the controls.

By using a TableLayoutPanel, you have complete control over how your cotrols should be arranged. You can set absolute or percentage size for rows and columns.