Conclusion

The grid, tree, and list controls will play a major part in your applications. The grid control is particularly important because most applications in production today are database applications. These controls are useful in their standard forms, but you can extend them to make them even more useful. For example, you can add custom items to a list or a tree, or you can create your own grid column styles. The ability to extend these controls allows you to make your applications more powerful.

With all the possibilities these controls offer, Visual C# does an outstanding job of providing programmers with access to all the control functionality, through the Forms Designer and the Collection Editor, as well as through numerous other helpful features. Don’t forget that a peek under the hood—as simple as looking at the InitializeComponent method—can provide helpful insight into the inner workings of the control you’re just about to use.

Chapter 17 concludes our discussion of Windows Forms programming with a look at topics that generally enhance the user’s experience of your application, including the use of toolbars, drag and drop operations, and the clipboard. These features are a must for every modern application.