Windows Forms and Controls with Right to Left Layout

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RightToLeft Property

The base Control class (from which Forms derive) includes a RightToLeft property that you can set to change the reading order of a Form and its controls. If you set the Form's RightToLeft property, by default, controls on the Form inherit this setting. However, you can also set the RightToLeft property individually on most controls.

The effect of the RightToLeft property can differ from one control to another. In some controls it only sets the reading order, as in the Button, TreeView and ToolTip controls. In other controls, the RightToLeft property changes both reading order and layout. This includes the RadioButton, ComboBox and CheckBox controls. The following table provides details on how the RightToLeft property affects individual Windows Forms controls.

Control/Component	Effect of RightToLeft property	Requires mirroring?
Button	Sets the RTL reading order	No
CheckBox	The check box is displayed on the right side of the text	No
CheckedListBox	All the check boxes are displayed on the right side of the text	No
ColorDialog	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
ComboBox	Items in combo box control are right-aligned	No
ContextMenu	Appears right-aligned with RTL reading order	No
DataGrid	Appears right-aligned with RTL reading order	No
DateTimePicker	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
DomainUpDown	Left-aligns the up and down buttons	No
ErrorProvider	Not supported	No
FontDialog	Depends on the language of the operating system	No
GroupBox	The caption is displayed right aligned. Child controls may inherit this property.	No
HScrollBar	Starts with the scroll box (thumb) right-aligned	No
ImageList	Not required	No
Label	Displayed right-aligned	No
LinkLabel	Displayed right-aligned	No
ListBox	Items are right-aligned	No
ListView	Sets the reading order to RTL; elements stay left-aligned	Yes
MainMenu	Displayed right-aligned with RTL reading order at run time (not at design time)	No
MonthCalendar	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
NotifyIcon	Not supported	No
NumericUpDown	Up and down buttons are left-aligned	No
OpenFileDialog	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
PageSetupDialog	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
Panel	Child controls may inherit this property	Yes
PictureBox	Not supported	No
PrintDialog	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
PrintDocument	The vertical scroll bar become left-aligned and the horizontal scroll bar starts from the left	No
PrintPreview	Not affected by this property	No
PrintPreviewDialog	Text displayed in a Form's title bar is right-aligned	No
ProgressBar	Not affected by this property	Yes
RadioButton	The radio button is displayed on the right side of the text	No
RichTextBox	Control elements that include text are displayed from right to left with RTL reading order	No
SaveFileDialog	Not affected; depends on the language of the operating system	No
Splitter	Not supported	No
StatusBar	The text in the panels is right-aligned with RTL reading order	Yes
TabControl	Not affected by this property	Yes
TextBox	Displays text from right to left with RTL reading order	No
Timer	Not required	No
ToolBar	Not affected by this property	Yes
ToolTip	Sets the RTL reading order	No
TrackBar	The scroll or track starts from the right	No
TreeView	Sets the RTL reading order only	Yes
VScrollBar	Displayed on the left side rather than right side of scrollable controls	No

Mirroring

Mirroring refers to reversing the layout of UI elements so that they flow from right to left. In a mirrored Windows Form, for example, the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons appear left-most on the title bar, not right-most.

Setting a form or control's RightToLeft property to true reverses the reading order of elements on a form, but it does not reverse the layout to be right-to-left — that is, it does not cause mirroring. For example, it does not move the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons in the form's title bar to the left side of the form. Similarly, some controls, such as the TreeView control, require mirroring in order to change their display to be appropriate for Arabic or Hebrew.

You cannot directly mirror a form or control. However, you can create mirroring in code. For forms, you can set an extended Windows style to cause mirroring. For most controls that require mirroring, you can create a mirrored control by inheriting from the base control and setting the same Windows extended style. You can create mirrored versions of the following controls:

ListView	Panel	StatusBar
TabControl	TabPage	ToolBar
Treeview

Some controls are sealed, so you cannot derive a new control from them. These include the ImageList and ProgressBar controls.

But there is a non-like thing. When you design a Form and put some some controls on it, the appearance during runtime will be mirrored. The control that you put it at the right of the form will be shown at the left.

History

• 14 Nov 2003 - udpated downloads