Panel Control Overview (Windows Forms)
Windows Forms Panel controls are used to provide an identifiable grouping for other controls. Typically, you use panels to subdivide a form by function. For example, you may have an order form that specifies mailing options such as which overnight carrier to use. Grouping all options in a panel gives the user a logical visual cue. At design time all the controls can be moved easily — when you move the Panel control, all its contained controls move, too. The controls grouped in a panel can be accessed through its Controls property. This property returns a collection of Control instances, so you will typically need to cast a control retrieved this way to its specific type.
Panel Versus GroupBox
The Panel control is similar to the GroupBox control; however, only the Panel control can have scroll bars, and only the GroupBox control displays a caption.
Key Properties
To display scroll bars, set the AutoScroll property to true
. You can also customize the appearance of the panel by setting the BackColor, BackgroundImage, and BorderStyle properties. For more information on the BackColor and BackgroundImage properties, see How to: Set the Background of a Panel. The BorderStyle property determines if the panel is outlined with no visible border (None), a plain line (FixedSingle), or a shadowed line (Fixed3D).
See also
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