Visual Studio™ Style Docking in a Single Click

Click to learn about Docking in Windows Forms

Maximize screen real-estate by creating complex layouts using WinDockManager.  Windows can be grouped with horizontal or vertical splits, stacked into tabbed groups, and pinned or set to auto-hide, just like the windows in Visual Studio 2003 or Visual Studio 2005.  Sliding groups let you create windows with groups like the Visual Studio toolbar


Features at a Glance
  • Dockable & Floating Windows - Controls can be docked to any side of the host container or displayed in an owned floating window.
  • AutoHide - Docked controls can be unpinned to conserve screen real estate. Unpinned controls are represented by a tab in an area along the outside of the container. The control is displayed in a separate window that slides out when the tab is selected.
  • Toggle State - Double clicking on a pane caption, tab item, or sliding group header will toggle the docked state of the pane(s).
  • Multiple Group Styles - Dockable controls can be grouped together in any combination when docked or floating. UltraDockManager supports four group styles – horizontal split, vertical split, tab groups and sliding groups.
  • WYSIWYG Design-Time Functionality - Easily create and position dockable controls at design-time. Access to the settings for individual docked controls is available in Visual Studio’s property grid when the control is selected.
  • Persist Layouts  - Save and load docked window layouts at design-time and-run-time.
  • Hierarchical Control Settings - Docked control settings can be set for an individual pane, children of a group, or for all panes.
  • Window Styles - A single property, WindowStyle, affects the default appearance of the pane windows, including the caption and tab styles. The settings can be further controlled through pane and group settings. Also, a LayoutStyle property can be used to specify how the dock area panes should manage the client area of the form.
  • Grouping and Moving Panes - Once docked controls have been created, the panes may be dragged around by pressing down on the caption, tab item, or sliding group header of the pane.
  • Preventing Docking - If the CTRL key is held down during the dragging of a pane, the drop location for the pane will always be a floating window.
  • Removing/Undocking Controls - When a docked control is cut, deleted, or dragged out of the dockable window, the associated DockableControlPane is removed. A pane can also be undocked by right clicking on the docked control and unchecking "Dock Controls" on the context menu.

Related Controls
WinLayoutManagers™