Designer

The Synchronize with Designer action selects the node in the Project Explorer corresponding to the selected item in the Designer window, allowing easy location of items and a quick way to orient yourself in the project configuration hierarchy.

For example, double-click on Customers / Orders / container1 / view1 node.

The properties page for the view will open in the Designer window.

In the Project Explorer, switch to the User Controls tab, and highlight Welcome user control.

Click on the Synchronize button on the Project Explorer, the Sync action on the Designer action bar, or press “Ctrl+.” keyboard shortcut (“Control” key pressed simultaneously with “period” key).

The Project Explorer will switch to the Controllers tab, and highlight the view1 node that was open in the Designer window.

The Sync action is also available on the context menu in the lists of project configuration elements.

Clicking on the Sync action will select the relevant node in the Project Explorer.

Focus can be switched between Designer window and Project Explorer tree by pressing “F4” keyboard shortcut.

Controls are instances of user controls that are placed in containers.

The picture below shows the default Home page with controls TableOfContents and Welcome placed in two containers.

Creating a Control

Controls can be added to a container by using the New Control option in the container context menu.

The New Control icon on the toolbar can also be used.

This will open the New Control form in the Project Designer window. The Id of the control will be automatically assigned, and can be changed in the Project Explorer.

Moving Controls

Dropping a control onto another control will place it after the target control.

The context menu actions Cut and Paste will also serve the same purpose.

Dropping a control to the right side of another control will place it after the target control.

Dropping a control to the left side of another control will place it before the target control.

Holding CTRL key while dropping on a page or container will duplicate the control. If a control with the same Id already exists in the page, the new control will be renamed.

Dropping a control onto a container will place the control at the bottom of the container.

Dropping a control onto a page will move that control onto that page in a new container.

Renaming a Control

Controls can be renamed using the Rename context menu option.

The keyboard shortcut F2 will also activate Rename command.

Editing Controls

A user control can be edited by using the context menu option Edit in Visual Studio. This option will only be present if the user control property Generate is set to “First Time Only”.

Deleting Controls

Controls can be deleted using the Delete context menu option.

The Delete key will activate Delete action.