I must do something terribly wrong?

Hi,

I try to accomplish 2 things, which my wildest fantacy can't imagine as difficult, but just can't get it work!

I want to start up with 3 panes docked to form left side, hidden so just tabs show (they are not grouped as I want captions to show). Done so far. Then when a Tab/Pane is expanded I want 2 things be possible.

1. By choice, make the Pane not autohide but stay open when clicking outside of Pane (losing focus). Problem: I tried to set .Hidden = False in Expanding event, but it doesn't work. It change the Pin icon (to vertical, pinned I think that means) but if I click in the client area the pane autohides. If I click the pin the pane dissapears and program crashes. If I click other Pane tab the current pane dissapear and can't be open again.

2. By choise, I want it be possible to Float the pane so it's not docked anymore, and dock it back to same place (left side) only. Problem: I try to 'drag' the pane to make it float but nothing happens. It just sits there unmovable. I try to double click it but then as well it just dissapear from form and cant be opened again.

By "can't be opened again" I mean 'DockingPaneManager.ShowPane n' doesn't make it show again, it's just gone!

I have come to understand at least part of the problem, last thing in my Form_Load I have this:

PaneA.Hide
PaneB.Hide
PaneC.Hide

End Sub 'Form_Load

If I remove this code Panes comes up docked to the left, on top of each other and I can drag them to float. However, they pushes everything to the right "squesing" objects in my client area, and I don't want that. Also the float insist on docking back TopOfForm and don't want to get back were it came from. I want it to slide out "over" client area and slide back when not needed anymore, the 3 lines above acomplish this. I thought I  could "pin" it to stay there until I "unpin", or to make it "float" and be able to "minimize" it to just show the caption bar - but maybe it's not possible?

As an example, in one pane I have a frtText to load in a document, but as soon as I open an Open dialog the Pane slide back. The doc loads alright and I can slide out the pane again, but this doesn't look "right" to the user I think.

Any help or clarification of "what's wrong" gratefully received.

Regards,
Joakim

Yes that works, sort of. The pane slide out over my picbox but then it dissapears and the tab as well. I guess it places it self behind the picbox. No way to have it stand there without making it floating?

If I float it after Pane.Hidden = False it becomes visible on top, but then when docked again it again hides behind the picbox. My head is too tired now to figure it out but I guess there is a way to catch it and put it in place.

However, why I have tried to figure out and don't get is how I can make a floating pane "minimize" so just the caption bar is floating visible?

Regards,
Joakim