Dialog boxes windows forms

The startup form loads automatically when the application is run. To make a second form or dialog box appear in the application, write code to load and display it. Similarly, to make the form or dialog box disappear, write code to unload or hide it.

Navigate to the event handler with which you want to open the dialog box. This can happen when a menu command is selected, when a button is clicked, or when any other event occurs.

I have Form1. Clicking "ADD" shows dialog Form2. My main doubt is where and how do we save these control values. Is there a specific approach to this type of DialogBoxes that I am missing?

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Create class, that would store values that you want to pass let's call it Foo. Form2 should then have a property.

Tschareck Tschareck 3, 8 8 gold badges 42 42 silver badges 72 72 bronze badges. What should the Foo class look like? I mean, how can we store something like KEY i.

I believe thats the concept of the Foo class. For each of controls I would have separate field or property in this class. I added that to my answer. Pe Mr. Pe 1 1 gold badge 7 7 silver badges 19 19 bronze badges. Quoting you Max. Or am I getting it wrong, please can you explain?

There is nothing build-in for the behavior you are looking for no Except with the property grid. But you can add one which would be, in the simplest case, a copy of the object you are editing. It would contain at least all the values you want to edit. This version of the ShowDialog method does not specify a form or control as its owner.

When this version is called, the currently active window is made the owner of the dialog box. If you want to specify a specific owner, use the other version of this method. Any object that implements IWin32Window that represents the top-level window that will own the modal dialog box.

The form specified in the owner parameter is the same as the form being shown. The dialog box can be assigned one of the values of DialogResult by assigning it to the DialogResult property of a Button on the form or by setting the DialogResult property of the form in code. Unlike modeless forms, the Close method is not called by the. This version of the ShowDialog method allows you to specify a specific form that will own the dialog box that is shown.

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For more information and examples, see Window Management. When displayed, user initiated dialog boxes should always take input focus. Program initiated dialog boxes shouldn't take input focus because the user may be interacting with another window. Such interaction misdirected at the dialog box may have unintended consequences. Assign initial input focus to the control that users are most likely to interact with first , which is usually but not always the first interactive control.

Avoid assigning initial input focus to a Help link. For keyboard navigation, tab order should flow in a logical order, generally from left to right, top to bottom. Usually tab order follows reading order, but consider making these exceptions:. When assigning order, assume that users display dialog boxes for their intended purpose; so, for example, users display choice dialogs to make choices, not to review and click Cancel. Pressing the Esc key always closes an active dialog box.

This is true for dialog boxes with Cancel or Close, and even if Cancel has been renamed to Close because the results can no longer be undone. Whenever possible, assign unique access keys to all interactive controls or their labels.

Read-only text boxes are interactive controls because users can scroll them and copy text so they benefit from access keys. Don't assign access keys to:. OK, Cancel, and Close buttons. Enter and Esc are used for their access keys.

However, always assign an access key to a control that means OK or Cancel, but has a different label. Group labels. Normally, the individual controls within a group are assigned access keys, so the group label doesn't need one.

However, if there is a shortage of access keys, assign an access key to the group label and not the individual controls.

Link labels. There are often too many links to assign unique access keys, and the underscores often used to signify links hide the access key underscores. Access links with the Tab key instead. Browse buttons labeled " These Browse buttons can't be assigned access keys uniquely. Unlabeled controls, such as spin controls, graphic command buttons, and unlabeled progressive disclosure controls. Non-label static text or labels for controls that aren't interactive, such as progress bars.

Whenever possible, assign access keys for commonly used commands according to the Standard Access Key Assignments. While consistent access key assignments aren't always possible, they are certainly preferred especially for frequently used dialog boxes. Assign commit button access keys first to ensure that they have the standard key assignments. If there isn't a standard key assignment, use the first letter of the first word.

For example, the access key for Yes and No commit buttons should always be "Y" and "N", regardless of the other controls in the dialog box. To make access keys easy to find, assign the access keys to a character that appears early in the label, ideally the first character, even if there is a keyword that appears later in the label.

Avoid using characters that make the underline difficult to see, such as from most problematic to least problematic :. For more guidelines and examples, see Keyboard. For long-running tasks, assume that users will do something else while the task is completing.

Design the task to run unattended. In this example, Windows Explorer allows users to continue with the task after a recoverable error. Don't use a notification for completion feedback. Use either a progress dialog or an action success notification , but not both. This compact format shows the most important information first so that it isn't truncated on the taskbar.

For more information and examples, see Progress Bars. In this example, a warning icon is incorrectly used for a question that doesn't involve potential loss of data or system access.

In this example, the yellow star icon represents Favorites. The icon is easily recognizable and is used consistently throughout Windows to represent Favorites. For more information and examples, see Icons. Don't confirm commit buttons. Doing so unnecessarily can be very annoying.

For more guidelines and examples, see Confirmations. Right-align commit buttons in a single row across the bottom of the dialog box, but above the footnote area. Do this even if there is a single commit button such as OK. Have a clear separation from commit buttons which close the window and all other command buttons such as Advanced.