Toolbox In Visual Studio 2008

❑ Toolbox: The Toolbox contains reusable controls and components that can be added to your application. These range from buttons to data connectors to customized controls that you have either purchased or developed.

The Toolbox is accessed through the View > Toolbox menu option, by clicking the Toolbox icon on the Standard menu bar, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+X. Alternatively, the Toolbox tab is displayed on the left of the IDE; hovering your mouse over this tab will cause the Toolbox window to fly out, partially covering your form.


The Toolbox contains a Node type view of the various controls and components that can be placed onto your form. Controls such as text boxes, buttons, radio buttons, and combo boxes can be selected and then drawn onto your form. For the HelloUser application, you will be using only the controls in the Common Controls node. Figure 11 shows a listing of common controls for Windows Forms.

Controls can be added to your forms in any order, so it does not matter if you add the label control after the text box or the buttons before the label.