How to control docking order in WinForms

Question

As the title states, I\'m looking for a way to control the order in which the items dock to the top of my control.

I\'ve played with the windows form designer, and

Answer 1

The order in which the controls are being added to the Controls collection determines the docking order.

Answer 2

(For the sake matter of showing another option): In Visual Studio 2012 (and later):

1. Select the Control you want to Move to the Front (or back);
2. Click in the below marked buttons (Bring to Front / Send to Back);

This will give you the possibility to rearrange the Controls to your desired order.

Answer 3

Go to View → Other windows → document outline.

In that window drag the controls so the docking is as you like it to be.

Answer 4

Note that when doing this programmatically, then there's a very easy way to achieve this, namely:

containerPanel.Controls.SetChildIndex(Element, 0); //sends element to the bottom of the list

Answer 5

As you said, the newest control added to the controls collection is the one on top. If you need a newer control to be added at the bottom, I'll suggest to create a list of controls, add the controls to the list, reverse the list and add the list to the controls collection.

List<Control> controls = new List<Control();
controls.Add(new myFirstControl());
controls.Add(new mySecondControl());
controls.Reverse();
this.Controls.AddRange(controls.ToArray());

Answer 6

Use these methods:

myControl.SendToBack();
myControl.BringToFront();