Using the <i class="emphasis">TabControl</i> Class

Using the TabControl Class

As discussed in the In Depth section of this chapter, tab controls let you divide your display into overlapping tab pages, and each page can contain other controls. Here is the class hierarchy of the TabControl class:

Object
   MarshalByRefObject
      Component
         Control
            TabControl

You can find the notable public properties of TabControl objects in Table 10.22, and the notable public events in Table 10.23. Note that I'm omitting the properties, methods, and events tab controls inherit from the Control class, which you can find in Chapter 5, Tables 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3.

Table 10.22: Noteworthy public properties of *TabControl* objects.
Property	Means
Alignment	Gets/sets where the tabs appear (top, left, etc.).
Appearance	Gets/sets the appearance of tabs in a tab control.
DisplayRectangle	Gets the bounding rectangle of the tab pages.
HotTrack	Gets/sets whether the tabs should change appearance when the mouse is over them.
ImageList	Gets/sets the images to show in tabs.
Multiline	Gets/sets whether the tab control can show more than one row of tabs.
RowCount	Gets the number of rows in the tab strip.
SelectedIndex	Gets/sets selected tab page's index.
SelectedTab	Gets/sets the selected tab page.
ShowToolTips	Gets/sets whether a tab's tooltip can be displayed.
TabCount	Gets the number of tabs.
TabPages	Gets the collection of tab pages.

Table 10.23: Noteworthy public events of *TabControl* objects.
Event	Means
SelectedIndexChanged	Occurs when the SelectedIndex property is changed.