Handle Multiple Controls Simultaneously

To select more than one Control, click the mouse on the background of the form then drag it by holding the left mouse button so as to draw a selection rectangle around the Controls you want selected. Alternatively, clicking on a Control whilst holding down the Ctrl key will add the Control into the selection.

 

Once you have selected one or more Controls, you can move them as a group by holding the mouse pointer over one of the selected controls until the pointer changes to the move pointer, e.g. a four headed arrow. Press and hold down the left mouse button and drag the group with the mouse.

 

When multiple Controls are selected, each Control will have a selection rectangle around it. The selection rectangle of the last Control added to the selection will be highlighted. To change the highlighted Control, simply click on the new control you want to be highlighted whist holding down the Ctrl key. The highlighted Control will function as the base Control for actions where the other Controls in the selection are modified by reference to characteristics of the base Control, e.g. where you want to make two Controls the same size or line up multiple Controls.

 

To remove a Control from the selection group, click on the Control whilst holding down the Shift key.

 

Selected Controls can be aligned with the highlighted Control by using the Align Lefts, Align Rights, Align Tops and Align Bottoms options from the Layout group on the Ribbon's Design tab or from the Align Controls option in the Quick Layout group on the Ribbon's Home tab or by right-clicking on one of the selected Controls within the group and choosing Align Tops or Align Lefts.

 

You can resize all Controls within the selection simultaneously by resizing any one of the Controls within the selection using the standard method of clicking and dragging the sizing squares displayed as part of the selection rectangle. All Controls within the selection will resize in the same proportion as the Control you physically resize.

If you want to make two or more Controls have the same height, width or both, select the Controls you want to match, making sure the Control you want to match to is the highlighted Control in the selection group. You can then use the Make Same Width, Make Same Height, and Make Same Size options in the Layout group on the Ribbon's Design tab or the Make Same Size option in the Quick Layout group on the Ribbon's Home tab.

 

Options such as Size to Content and Centre Vertically/Horizontally can also be used on a group of selected Controls, as well as on individual Controls. Note, however, that in this case the centring options centre the group as a whole rather than centring individual Controls within the group.

 

By default, when you select multiple Controls on a form, the Properties Pane will only display Properties common to all the selected Controls. If the value of a particular Property is the same for all Controls in the selection, that value will be displayed for the Property in the Properties Pane's property grid, otherwise the Property will be blank. Editing one of the Property values will update the Property for all currently selected Controls. This behaviour can be changed using the Enhanced Property Grid option on the Advanced tab of the App Studio Settings, so that only the highlighted Control's Properties are displayed and editable.