Looking for a Visual Studio toolbox style navigation for desktop applications

Question

I'm working on a project that uses an MDI application with a navigation panel on the side. Currently it is a ListView. However, I would like to redesign it to be similar to the toolbox in visual studio 2008.

If this is something that would require overriding the default paint method, it would also help if you could provide some good references on how to work with the paint method as I do not currently have any experience using it.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You want to be using a ToolBox control. A few freely available ones are available the most friendly that i've used being by Gordon Robinson at: http://gordondrobinson.com/post/Toolbox-control-written-in-C.aspx

Answer 2

Have a look at the Nevron User Interface: http://www.nevron.com/Products.UserInterfaceFor.NET.Overview.aspx

Answer 3

I believe what you need is a PanelBar control. I won't go into details on how to create one, as this would fall short of the topic of the post, but I would highly suggest that you look for a third-party implementation if you're going to use this more than once in the project, or in more than one project.

Here is an example: http://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/panelbar.aspx