Getting Started with WinForms TabControl

18 Nov 20185 minutes to read

Assembly deployment

Refer to the control dependencies section to get the list of assemblies or NuGet package that needs to be added as a reference to use the control in any application.

You can find more details about installing the NuGet packages in a Windows Forms application in the following link:

How to install nuget packages

Create a simple application with WinForms TabControl

You can create a Windows Forms application with WinForms TabControl using the following steps:

Create a project

Create a new Windows Forms project in Visual Studio to display the WinForms TabControl with tab pages.

Add control through designer

The WinForms TabControl can be added to an application by dragging it from the toolbox to a designer view. The following assembly references are added automatically:

  • Syncfusion.Grid.Base.dll
  • Syncfusion.Grid.Windows.dll
  • Syncfusion.Shared.Base.dll
  • Syncfusion.Shared.Windows.dll
  • Syncfusion.Tools.Base.dll
  • Syncfusion.Tools.Windows.dll

wf tab control added by designer

Add tabs

The tabs can be added to WinForms TabControl in the following ways:

1. Right-click the WinForms TabControl and select the Add Tab option to add the TabPages to WinForms TabControl through designer.

tabs added using add tab option

2. Add tabs using TabPagesCollection in smart tags of WinForms TabControl.

tabs added using tab pages collection

Add controls in tab pages

You can add any control in tab page.

tab page has calendar control

Add control manually in code

To add the control manually in code, follow the given steps:

  1. Add the following required assembly references to the project:

    • Syncfusion.Grid.Base.dll
    • Syncfusion.Grid.Windows.dll
    • Syncfusion.Shared.Base.dll
    • Syncfusion.Shared.Windows.dll
    • Syncfusion.Tools.Base.dll
    • Syncfusion.Tools.Windows.dll

  2. Include the Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools namespace.

    using Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools;
    Imports Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools

  3. Create a WinForms TabControl instance, and add it to the window.

    TabControlAdv tabControlAdv1 = new TabControlAdv();
  this.Controls.Add(tabControlAdv1);
    Dim tabControlAdv1 As TabControlAdv = New TabControlAdv()
  Me.Controls.Add(tabControlAdv1)

Add tabs

Create an instance of TabPageAdv, and add it to the WinForms TabControl.

TabPageAdv tabPageAdv1 = new TabPageAdv();
tabPageAdv1.Text = "tabPageAdv1";
this.tabControlAdv1.Controls.Add(tabPageAdv1);
Dim tabPageAdv1 As TabPageAdv = New TabPageAdv()
tabPageAdv1.Text = "tabPageAdv1"
Me.tabControlAdv1.Controls.Add(tabPageAdv1)

tab page added in tabcontrol

Add controls in tab pages

You can add any control in TabPageAdv. Create an instance of the control, and add it to TabPageAdv.

SfCalendar calendar = new SfCalendar();
tabPageAdv1.Controls.Add(calendar);
Dim calendar As New SfCalendar()
tabPageAdv1.Controls.Add(calendar)

calendar control added in tab page

Tab placement

WinForms TabControl provides an option to display tabs horizontally at the top or bottom and vertically at the left or right by setting the Alignment property of WinForms TabControl.

//Tabs placement
tabControlAdv1.Alignment = TabAlignment.Bottom;
'Tabs placement
tabControlAdv1.Alignment = TabAlignment.Bottom

Left

tabcontrol left alignment

Right

tabcontrol right alignment

Top

tabcontrol top alignment

Bottom

tabcontrol bottom alignment

Edit header at run time

You can rename the tab header at run time by setting the LabelEdit property of WinForms TabControl to true.

// Renaming header text.
this.tabControlAdv.LabelEdit = true;
' Renaming header text.
Me.tabControlAdv.LabelEdit = True

tabcontrol header edit

Multi-line tabs

You can arrange the tabs in multiple rows by enabling the Multiline property of WinForms TabControl.

//Multiline tabs
tabControlAdv1.Multiline = true;
'Multiline tabs
tabControlAdv1.Multiline = True

tabcontrol multi tabs