How do you add an existing form to a new project?

Question

I have never been able to successfully add a Form from an existing file to a new project.

I read on a blog that you add just the *.cs file and the depen

Answer 1

You can import an existing Form into a project. The files that need to be imported depend on the version of the Visual Studio used to create the form.

I will assume that you have two separate projects, Foo and Bar, in different solutions:

C:\
    Projects\
        Foo\
            Foo.sln
            Foo.vcproj
            Program.cs
            Foo.cs
            Foo.Designer.cs
            Foo.Designer.resx

and

C:\
    Projects\
        Bar\
            Bar.sln
            Bar.vcproj
            Program.cs
            Bar.cs
            Bar.Designer.cs
            Bar.Designer.resx

Now, say that you need to import fhe form Foo to the project Bar. First, you need to copy all files that accompany Foo into the Bar project folder:

C:\
    Projects\
        Bar\
            Bar.sln
            Bar.vcproj
            Program.cs
            Bar.cs
            Bar.Designer.cs
            Bar.Designer.resx
            Foo.cs
            Foo.Designer.cs
            Foo.Designer.resx

Then, open Bar.sln in Visual Studio and right-click on the Bar project in Solution Explorer. Select [Add existing item] and select all files that you copied for the Foo form in the dialog opened. After confirming, you should see the newly imported form correctly in Solution Explorer.