Tip #50: Did you know…How to absolute position the controls in Visual Studio Designer?

Absolute positioning control(s) in the designer can seem confusing at first until you learn the visual cues. You can do one of the following two possible actions by dragging the control in the designer.

  1. Re-parent the control
  2. Change the controls position.

When you drag the body of the control, you are changing the parent of the control.  You can see this because the cursor changes to the small arrow with a square box. 

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On the other hand, when you drag it by the white tag, you change the physical position of the control.  You can see this because the cursor changes to the 4-way arrow and there is no square box. 

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Unfortunately, today the cursor shows a 4-way arrow when you hover over the body of a web control and that’s a known issue.  It should be only a 4-way arrow when you a hover on the white tag and a standard arrow when you hover on the body. You will see the right behavior with HTML button.

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Note: Additionally the first drop of the control always sets its parenting always, not its position.

Vinayabhushana GattamReddy
TM || Visual Web Developer