"Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
news:e6WDpP2LGHA.3276@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi all!
>
> I made a MdiTabs control, which displays a tab for every open MDI child.
> All
> MDI Children are loaded with window state Maximized, the MDI container
> form
> as parent and witout their control box.
> This in itself works perfect, but... There is always a gap between the tab
> and the childform (see attached partial screenshot). This gap seems to be
> caused by a border in the MDI client area.
>
> Is it possible to eliminate this border at the top, or entirely?
>
> All input will be appreciated.
>
> Tia,
> Martin
>
>
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23GlEhI5LGHA.668@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Very nice. I think "MDI tabs" should be offered as some sort of control in
> Visual Studio. Considering "Classic MDI" has been deprecated and
> "discouraged by Microsoft" since 1995. I can't believe we're still having
> to come up with our own workarounds when creating apps that deal with
> multiple documents.
>
> Anyway, I don't think it's possible to get rid of the border... but you
> can experiment with tweaking the MdiClient area.... it's actually a
> control! :
>
> Private Function GetMDIClientArea() As MdiClient
>
>    For Each ctl As Control In Me.Controls
>        If TypeOf ctl Is MdiClient Then
>            Return CType(ctl, MdiClient)
>        End If
>    Next ctl
>
> End Function
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
> news:e6WDpP2LGHA.3276@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Hi all!
>>
>> I made a MdiTabs control, which displays a tab for every open MDI child.
>> All
>> MDI Children are loaded with window state Maximized, the MDI container
>> form
>> as parent and witout their control box.
>> This in itself works perfect, but... There is always a gap between the
>> tab
>> and the childform (see attached partial screenshot). This gap seems to be
>> caused by a border in the MDI client area.
>>
>> Is it possible to eliminate this border at the top, or entirely?
>>
>> All input will be appreciated.
>>
>> Tia,
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>
>
>

"Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
news:eeQ8r18LGHA.3460@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi again CMM,
>
> I totally agree with you. I started this venture with a post if anyone
> knew
> of an MDI Tabs control. When you search the help information for MDI tabs
> or
> Tabbed Dialog Interface you see a thousand articles about how TDI is the
> interface of choice nowadays for apps and how great the the TDI in the IDE
> is... but with that same IDE they allow you to only build apps with the
> outdated MDI interface... If that isn't a contradiction!
>
> I followed your advice to "attack" the MdiClientArea, your function worked
> like a charm, however none of the setting-adjustments seemed to have any
> effect.
> I noticed that the padding was already set to 0
>
> I'm attaching a partial screenshot of our current version (written in VB6)
> where tab and form are seamless.... Something like this should be possible
> in VB2005 as well I would think.
>
> I inserted the MDI Tabs by docking them to the top. Am I right in assuming
> this makes the MDI client area smaller?
>
> Tia,
> Martin
>
>
>
> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:%23GlEhI5LGHA.668@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> Very nice. I think "MDI tabs" should be offered as some sort of control
>> in
>> Visual Studio. Considering "Classic MDI" has been deprecated and
>> "discouraged by Microsoft" since 1995. I can't believe we're still having
>> to come up with our own workarounds when creating apps that deal with
>> multiple documents.
>>
>> Anyway, I don't think it's possible to get rid of the border... but you
>> can experiment with tweaking the MdiClient area.... it's actually a
>> control! :
>>
>> Private Function GetMDIClientArea() As MdiClient
>>
>>    For Each ctl As Control In Me.Controls
>>        If TypeOf ctl Is MdiClient Then
>>            Return CType(ctl, MdiClient)
>>        End If
>>    Next ctl
>>
>> End Function
>>
>> --
>> -C. Moya
>> www.cmoya.com
>> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
>> news:e6WDpP2LGHA.3276@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>>> Hi all!
>>>
>>> I made a MdiTabs control, which displays a tab for every open MDI child.
>>> All
>>> MDI Children are loaded with window state Maximized, the MDI container
>>> form
>>> as parent and witout their control box.
>>> This in itself works perfect, but... There is always a gap between the
>>> tab
>>> and the childform (see attached partial screenshot). This gap seems to
>>> be
>>> caused by a border in the MDI client area.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to eliminate this border at the top, or entirely?
>>>
>>> All input will be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Tia,
>>> Martin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ejiQbDAMGHA.1676@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Actually... I'm working on one myself. It's pretty full-featured and was
> inspired by work I saw others do like DockManager
> http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/DockManager.asp. The problem with
> ALL those solutions is that they required that I derive my windows from
> some sort of base class. My solution doesn't require that and it allows
> you to "turn off" the Tabbed MDI and go back to regular ol' MDI. This was
> a requirement at my company.
>
> You use it as simply as (psuedo code):
> Dim frm As New Form1
> Me.WindowManagerPanel1.Add(frm)
> frm.Show
>
> It also supports tiling, ctrl+tab navigation, and popping windows out of
> the TDI so they overlap on your desktop (like Outlook's child windows).
>
> I'm getting ready to publish it today with the source code. My control
> doesn't have the border problem... not sure why.... possibly because I
> don't rely on "maximizing" the child window.... I set it's bounds to fill
> the client area.
>
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
> news:eeQ8r18LGHA.3460@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Hi again CMM,
>>
>> I totally agree with you. I started this venture with a post if anyone
>> knew
>> of an MDI Tabs control. When you search the help information for MDI tabs
>> or
>> Tabbed Dialog Interface you see a thousand articles about how TDI is the
>> interface of choice nowadays for apps and how great the the TDI in the
>> IDE
>> is... but with that same IDE they allow you to only build apps with the
>> outdated MDI interface... If that isn't a contradiction!
>>
>> I followed your advice to "attack" the MdiClientArea, your function
>> worked like a charm, however none of the setting-adjustments seemed to
>> have any effect.
>> I noticed that the padding was already set to 0
>>
>> I'm attaching a partial screenshot of our current version (written in
>> VB6) where tab and form are seamless.... Something like this should be
>> possible in VB2005 as well I would think.
>>
>> I inserted the MDI Tabs by docking them to the top. Am I right in
>> assuming this makes the MDI client area smaller?
>>
>> Tia,
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>
>> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23GlEhI5LGHA.668@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>>> Very nice. I think "MDI tabs" should be offered as some sort of control
>>> in
>>> Visual Studio. Considering "Classic MDI" has been deprecated and
>>> "discouraged by Microsoft" since 1995. I can't believe we're still
>>> having
>>> to come up with our own workarounds when creating apps that deal with
>>> multiple documents.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I don't think it's possible to get rid of the border... but you
>>> can experiment with tweaking the MdiClient area.... it's actually a
>>> control! :
>>>
>>> Private Function GetMDIClientArea() As MdiClient
>>>
>>>    For Each ctl As Control In Me.Controls
>>>        If TypeOf ctl Is MdiClient Then
>>>            Return CType(ctl, MdiClient)
>>>        End If
>>>    Next ctl
>>>
>>> End Function
>>>
>>> --
>>> -C. Moya
>>> www.cmoya.com
>>> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
>>> news:e6WDpP2LGHA.3276@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>>>> Hi all!
>>>>
>>>> I made a MdiTabs control, which displays a tab for every open MDI
>>>> child.
>>>> All
>>>> MDI Children are loaded with window state Maximized, the MDI container
>>>> form
>>>> as parent and witout their control box.
>>>> This in itself works perfect, but... There is always a gap between the
>>>> tab
>>>> and the childform (see attached partial screenshot). This gap seems to
>>>> be
>>>> caused by a border in the MDI client area.
>>>>
>>>> Is it possible to eliminate this border at the top, or entirely?
>>>>
>>>> All input will be appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Tia,
>>>> Martin
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23FJbB3CMGHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Gonna try to publish it tonight on my site. It'll eventually make its way
> to Codeproject.
> I'm working on the sample right now.
>
> I started this a long while ago.... but, I've recently abandoned Hungarian
> Notation so I'm going through all the code and fixing it up sans my really
> ugly old-school. VB.Classic notation. ;-)
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OeTBbvFMGHA.3556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> I've publish a preliminary version. Check
> http://www.cflashsoft.com/progs/mdiwinman/
> Working on cleaning up the code. It looks good to me though....
>
> I'm kinda impressed. I finished most of this over a year ago... and then
> kinda lost interest. I was COMPLETELY confident that VS2005 would address
> this problem. It didn't.
>
> Lemme know what you think.
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:%23FJbB3CMGHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> Gonna try to publish it tonight on my site. It'll eventually make its way
>> to Codeproject.
>> I'm working on the sample right now.
>>
>> I started this a long while ago.... but, I've recently abandoned
>> Hungarian Notation so I'm going through all the code and fixing it up
>> sans my really ugly old-school. VB.Classic notation. ;-)
>>
>> --
>> -C. Moya
>> www.cmoya.com
>>
>
>

"Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
news:%23G8wUtJMGHA.3984@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Hi CMM!
>
> You have every right to be impressed, it looks awesome. The possibilities
> are really cool, it would
> be perfect for planning software or something.
>
> I'm just curious how you got rid of the MDI border... Do you instanciate
> buttons and stuff on a
> panel, or do you do your own drawing?
>
> I've put on my website a picture of the project I'm working on now. As you
> can see I have
> chosen a totally different approach. I have kept the bar simple, and
> limited the number of options
> to a minimum. I did (what you dread so much) use subclassed forms for the
> MDI children, but
> I did that for a purpose: The subclass does a heck of a lot more than just
> inform the tabs control
> that the form became active, it reads all the texts from a database (the
> app is multi lingual) and
> takes care of all record navigation within the database. The form-subclass
> performs its own
> kind of field-binding for the controls and the toolbar. The objective is
> to create relatively
> simple windows (like the one you see in the image) completely code-less.
>
> So far it works really nice, and I am kinda proud of that, since this is
> the 4th week that I have
> VB2005. Until now I was doing all my coding in VB6
>
> Have a look at it: www.espital.net/studyui.htm
>
> Regards,
> Martin
>
>
>
> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:OeTBbvFMGHA.3556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> I've publish a preliminary version. Check
>> http://www.cflashsoft.com/progs/mdiwinman/
>> Working on cleaning up the code. It looks good to me though....
>>
>> I'm kinda impressed. I finished most of this over a year ago... and then
>> kinda lost interest. I was COMPLETELY confident that VS2005 would address
>> this problem. It didn't.
>>
>> Lemme know what you think.
>>
>> --
>> -C. Moya
>> www.cmoya.com
>> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23FJbB3CMGHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>>> Gonna try to publish it tonight on my site. It'll eventually make its
>>> way to Codeproject.
>>> I'm working on the sample right now.
>>>
>>> I started this a long while ago.... but, I've recently abandoned
>>> Hungarian Notation so I'm going through all the code and fixing it up
>>> sans my really ugly old-school. VB.Classic notation. ;-)
>>>
>>> --
>>> -C. Moya
>>> www.cmoya.com
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OFx4qnMMGHA.3196@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
> news:OVpcowJMGHA.3984@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>> One thing I observed... It looks as if your tabs-control is located
>> inside the MDI Client area, while mine is docked, and therefore outside
>> the MDI client area. Is that correct?
>
> That't right. My control enforces it's own "docking"... it's more of a
> "magnetic" aligning to the sides than docking. This was necessary in order
> to accomplish all the sorts layouts it can do. As for the border of the
> children, I don't do anything special except change their border style
> on-the-fly and size them to fill the client area... this is all done with
> plain code without subclassing them.... however, the MDIWindowManager does
> subscribe to some of their events in order to stay informed. The control
> basically just
> (pseudocode)
> MDIWindowManager.Items.Add(frm As Form)
>    With frm
>        .MDIParent = Me.ParentForm
>        .FormBorderStyle = None
>        .SizeToFillClientArea
>        .AddEventHandlers (frm.Close, frm.Move, etc).
>        .Show
>    End With
>
> Also, yes, the tabs are "drawn" in code. One of the improvements I want to
> make is to draw those "fancy" pretty tabs in VS2005 similar to the ones in
> your app.
>
> BTW, your app looks VERY good. Personally I wouldn't worry so much about
> the client area border. If it does what you want it to do otherwise you
> should be fine. How do you handle tiling? Is that supported?
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
>

"CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23D8XZxPMGHA.668@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>I don't know what the requirements of your app are (in a business context),
>but I would be upset (as a user) if I wasn't allowed to tile windows....
>sometimes you need to be able to see two windows side by side. Visual
>Studio for instance lets you tile your windows even though it's still a TDI
>interface.
>
> I guess it depends on the demands of the application. But, I think the
> point of TDI is to "improve" on the MDI experience without taking features
> away.
>
>
> --
> -C. Moya
> www.cmoya.com
>

"Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
news:eU%23K6MiMGHA.3392@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Hi again CMM,
>
> I can imagine, for certain types of apps, that you would require to be
> able to arrange windows side-by-side, or something like that. Editors (or
> for instance an IDE, which is in essence a glorified editor), drawing
> programs, schedulers, planners, etc. are good examples of programs where
> this is a requirement, or at least a very helpful feature.
> However, in other apps, such as accounting systems, it's much less
> helpful. In fact some of these windows are so full of fields that hiding
> them partially would make the window useless.My application is such an
> application. In the current version we still offer cascading, tiling, etc.
> but that is simply inherited from former versions who were "classic"
> MDI's. I did some research among our users and found that litterally
> nobody used those features anymore.
> Everybody found maximized windows much clearer. Now, like I said before, I
> know this is not representative for all kinds of Windows apps, but for the
> type we're focussing on it is the case.
>
> Regards,
> Martin
>
> "CMM" <cmm@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:%23D8XZxPMGHA.668@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>>I don't know what the requirements of your app are (in a business
>>context), but I would be upset (as a user) if I wasn't allowed to tile
>>windows.... sometimes you need to be able to see two windows side by side.
>>Visual Studio for instance lets you tile your windows even though it's
>>still a TDI interface.
>>
>> I guess it depends on the demands of the application. But, I think the
>> point of TDI is to "improve" on the MDI experience without taking
>> features away.
>>
>>
>> --
>> -C. Moya
>> www.cmoya.com
>>
>
>