Sanjay Patil

• Aug 30th, 2005

 

Multiple Document Interface(MDI)

John

• Aug 30th, 2005

 

MDI stands for Multiple Document Interface. An MDI Form acts as a container for Child Forms. Your project can have only one MDI Form, but any number of Child Forms and non-Child Forms. Many familiar programs are MDI Applications, such as America Online and the Microsoft Office applications.  
 
You cannot print or draw graphics on an MDI Form. The Picture Box is the only intrinsic control which can be drawn directly on an MDI Form. Other controls would have to be contained within the Picture Box. Usually, the purpose of this would be to create Toolbars and StatusBars without using a custom control.  
 
You must specifically add the MDI Form to your project. Go to Project/Add MDI Form or right-click in Project Explorer and select Add/MDI Form. Create Child Forms from any regular Forms by setting the MDIChild property to True.  
 
When a Child Form is minimized, it will be reduced to an Icon at the bottom of the MDI Form and will not show in the Windows Task Bar. If maximized, it will only enlarge to the size of the MDI Form client area.

VVK Venkat

• Nov 25th, 2005

 

Hi John and All,

Have one correction and inclusion with John's statment about this Question: Picture Box is NOT the only control, other than that, Timer control can also be placed in MDI Form.

Regards,

Venkat

John Wrote: MDI stands for Multiple Document Interface. An MDI Form acts as a container for Child Forms. Your project can have only one MDI Form, but any number of Child Forms and non-Child Forms. Many familiar programs are MDI Applications, such as America Online and the Microsoft Office applications.  
 
You cannot print or draw graphics on an MDI Form. The Picture Box is the only intrinsic control which can be drawn directly on an MDI Form. Other controls would have to be contained within the Picture Box. Usually, the purpose of this would be to create Toolbars and StatusBars without using a custom control.  
 
You must specifically add the MDI Form to your project. Go to Project/Add MDI Form or right-click in Project Explorer and select Add/MDI Form. Create Child Forms from any regular Forms by setting the MDIChild property to True.  
 
When a Child Form is minimized, it will be reduced to an Icon at the bottom of the MDI Form and will not show in the Windows Task Bar. If maximized, it will only enlarge to the size of the MDI Form client area.

Jyothi

• Mar 2nd, 2006

 

I would like to add one more point we only controls with align property can be placed in the MDI form.

Prasanna Kumar

• Feb 9th, 2007

 

common dialogue control can also be placed