How can i make WinForms TabPage header width fit it's title?

Question

How can i make WinForms TabPage header width fit it's title? Here is the problem.

Answer 1

The native Windows tab control allows overriding the default minimum tab width. Sadly that capability is not exposed in the TabControl wrapper class. That's fixable though. Add a new class to your project and paste the code shown below. Compile. Drop the new control from the top of the toolbox onto your form.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class MyTabControl : TabControl {
    protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e) {
        base.OnHandleCreated(e);
        // Send TCM_SETMINTABWIDTH
        SendMessage(this.Handle, 0x1300 + 49, IntPtr.Zero, (IntPtr)10);
    }
    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);
}

Answer 2

Thanks, Hans. I used your code without creating a class

//InitializeComponent
this.tabPresentations.HandleCreated += new System.EventHandler(TabControl_HandleCreated);

void TabControl_HandleCreated(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
     // Send TCM_SETMINTABWIDTH
     SendMessage((sender as TabControl).Handle, 0x1300 + 49, IntPtr.Zero, (IntPtr)4);
}
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);

Answer 3

You need to measure the fonts.

Try something like this:

Dim tabPage As New TabPage
Dim width As Integer = 0
Dim valueToMeasure As String = <Your title Here>
Dim g As Graphics = tabPage.CreateGraphics()

width = CType(g.MeasureString(valueToMeasure, tabPage.Font).Width, Integer)

Probably add a bot extra on for padding (width = width +10)

Edited:

<tab>.width = GetTabWidth(<Title>)

Private Function GetTabWidth (Byval title as String) as Integer

     Dim widthValue as Integer = 10    'Padding (Optional)

     Dim tabPage as New tabPage
     Dim g as Graphics = tabPage.CreateGraphics()

     widthValue += Ctype(g.measureString(title, tabPage.Font).Width, Integer)

     Return widthValue

End Function