Move Controls With The Mouse On A Form At Runtime

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;

namespace MoveContols
{
    class helperClassforControlMover
    {
        public enum direction
        {
            Any,
            Horizontal,
            Vertical
        }

        public static void Init(Control control)
        {
            Init(control, direction.Any);
        }

        public static void Init(Control control, direction direction)
        {
            Init(control, control, direction);
        }

        public static void Init(Control control, Control container, direction direction)
        {
            bool Dragging = false;
            Point DragStart = Point.Empty;
            control.MouseDown += delegate (object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
            {
                Dragging = true;
                DragStart = new Point(e.X, e.Y);
                control.Capture = true;
            };

            control.MouseUp += delegate (object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
            {
                Dragging = false;
                control.Capture = false;
            };

            control.MouseMove += delegate (object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
            {
                if (Dragging)
                {
                    if (direction != direction.Vertical)
                        container.Left = Math.Max(0, e.X + container.Left - DragStart.X);
                    if (direction != direction.Horizontal)
                        container.Top = Math.Max(0, e.Y + container.Top - DragStart.Y);
                }
            };
        }
    }
}

Step 4. An example of how to use this code is presented in the project source file. All controls can be moved by a mouse.

To enable moving mode for control, we just call the Init method in the helperClassforMoveControl class and send control to it.

Step 5. Then run the program and see the output. Now control can be moved at runtime. I have shown two output images, Output 1 is first, and after moving control, the output in the second image is output 2.

Figure 1: Output 1

Figure 2: Output 2

Note: Sometimes, a control may only be moved in one direction. This is true for splitters and stuff. The helper class has a direction enumerator which makes things really easy.

See the below code.

MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Init(this.groupBox1);
MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Init(this.groupBox2, MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Direction.Any);
MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Init(this.groupBox2, MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Direction.Horizontal);
MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Init(this.groupBox2, MoveControls.helperClassforCotrolMover.Direction.Vertical);

Summary

In this article, we discussed how to move controls with the mouse at runtime in C# Windows form applications.

We learned about the helper class, and how we use a helper class to do this operation.

To enable moving mode for control, we call the Init method in the helperClassforMoveControl class and send control to it.

I hope this article will be useful for you!

Source code is attached to this article.