Resizing tabs individually and programmatically in C# with Winforms

Question

I have a form with a tab control.

I want each tab to have its own interface with its own size, so that I can have button layouts as necessary.

I am, in this example, only altering height.

Currently I have the default form height and default tab height set (set by tab index 0).

I need a programmatic way to set each tab's height individually, and on event selectedIndexChanged , I am able to resize the form as needed relative to the currently selected tab, but I don't know how to change each tab's height individually.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

It sounds like you are talking more about the height of the form based on the selected tab than the height of each individual tab item.

Assuming the TabControl is Dock-Filled on a parent form, you can try this code to resize the form's height based on the content of the TabPage:

void tabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  var controls = tabControl1.SelectedTab.Controls.Cast<Control>();
  if (controls.Any()) {
    this.Height = controls.Max(x => x.Bottom) + 72;
  }
}

The routine finds the lowest based control on the TabPage and then adds a fudge number of 72 to account for the height of the form's non-client area and other miscellaneous spacing issues.

But note, constantly changing the height of the form based on a tab selection can be a bit jarring to the end user, and is probably not considered a popular UX implementation.