Toolstrip Dissapears

Question

This is a ridiculously old bug, however I'd like a fix for it...

I have a form with a tab control, within the tab control I have tabs with a toolbar on each tab.  Each toolbar has at least one button with an image on its face.  When I run the application, then return to design mode, it never fails that at least one of the toolbar's visible property is set to false.

I dont want a solution where at runtime I have to reset the visible property of the control to true, thats not a solution... its a bandaid as I can NOT see the toolbar in the tab control AT DESIGN time either without finding the control and manually setting the visible property to true... who designs this crap?

This BUG has been alive through the last 3 releases of Visual Studio and well documented.  When will it be fixed?

MS VS2010 SP1.

Answer 1

After researching the problem more, it appears that if you embed your toolbar inside a toolbar container inside the tab, it will not disappear anymore...  but it doesn't want to size right.... but... i guess this will have to do as MS seems to want to ignore the problem.

Answer 2

Hi Stimphy,

I'm glad you found a solution。 However, I can't reproduce this issue, would you mind post how can we reproduce this issue step by step. Thanks.

Good day.

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Bob Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 3

Well... I thought it was fixed... but its not, the toolstrip still becomes invisible in the toolstrip container.  This is crazy..

Here is how to recreate.

Create a form
Add a Tab Control, dock = fill
Add 5 tabs to the tab control.
On each tab add a toolstrip, dock = top
Add a few images as embedded resources to your project.
Go back to each toolstrip and add a couple of buttons, set the image property of each button to one of the embedded resources.

Select one of the tabs so it is visible and debug the solution, click on each tab, then stop debugging.

I havnt been able to determine an exact chain of events that causes the toolstrip to go invisible yet, but I'll keep trying till I can figure it out and I'll post it here when I do.

Note: This is NOT a way to make it happen, just me rambling about how to setup a similar form to mine and my initial attempts on how to make the issue happen.

Answer 4

Ok.. so this will do it but I'm not sure that its the main cause or not but its one of them.

When you have the form built and in design mode, look at the bottom of the designer where the toolstrips are shown as icons.  Take and move them around in that view(highlight them all with your mouse) and just move them a little in any direction.  Now select each one in the same view and check the visible property... it'll be false even if it was true before....

Thats one way to make it happen, i dont know if i was doing that before or not but I'll keep an eye on what I am doing to see if i can get it to happen yet again when doing something else.

Answer 5

Here is another way related to the last

In design mode again on the bottom where the toolstrips show as icons.  Hold your control key down and just select 2 or more of them.  You dont have to move them, now check the visible property of each again... one of them will be false.

Answer 6

Hi Stimphy,

Thank you for your detail information.

I can't reproduce this issue with the first and second way. However, the issue did occurs with the last way.

Anyway, here is my demo. Could you please check if you can reproduce it with the first and second ways?

By the way, what's the version of  your visual studio and .net framewrok.

Best Regards,

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Bob Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 7

Hi Stimphy,

After consulting with other engineer, we both think this issue is repeatable. However, I still can't reproduce the first and second situation, could you please kindly submit a feedback to Microsoft Connect and post the feedback line back here? Thanks a lot.

Best Regards,

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Bob Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 8

Here is my environment information.

I am using MS VS 2010 v. 10.0.40219.1 SP1Rel

VB.Net in a Windows Forms Application using .NET Framework 4.0

I am confused by your response.  It says you can not make it happen the first or second way.. but it occurs with the last way..  I have only provided two methods of making this happen.  Please be more specific as to which way it is repeatable and which way it is not.

Answer 9

So I downloaded your demo and tested it using the two known methods of making this occur.

I have uploaded a vid that shows how to make it happen using your example.

Screen capture stuff

Answer 10

Hi Stimphy,

Thank you for the detail information.

I'm sorry that I though the reproduce steps is one way. 

Any way, I watch the video and successfully reproduce this issue on several machine. I agree with you that this is a limitation. I think there is no way to change this behavior without the Visual Studio and .Net framework team.

I have submit this issue to Microsoft, please visit it and vote it.

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/759024/toolstrips-visible-property-set-to-false-if-we-move-more-than-two-toolstrips-at-the-same-time

Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Have a nice day.

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Bob Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 11

Thank you for taking time to review and confirm this is an issue.

Answer 12

You're welcome.

Good day.

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Bob Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 13

Hi Stimphy,

Nice video.

If it still bothers you and you are willing to use .NET 4 together wit a custom ToolStrip then you might want to take a look at this thread: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winformsdesigner/thread/6f56b963-df4d-4f26-8dc3-0244d129f07c/?prof=required

 A.J.

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Don't panic! Debug it.