Panels in same area in winform

Question

I currently have a windows form that I am using as a "holder" for many panels. All of these panels are being used like pages, so say I have a default panel, a details panel etc. They all cover the exact same area and i am using a top menu to have buttons to show/hide the correct panel.

The problem I have with this is that I cannot select one panel and edit it or simply bring it to the front to edit it in "design" mode, I currently have to keep sending the top panel to the back until I get the one I need. This is okay now, but eventually my program will have over 20 panel type pages, and this will get tedious.

Is there a better way to manage this, or is there an easier way than using panels?

Answer 1

All these panels are used like pages
Above line in your question suggests that you should be using TabPage instead of Panels.
Therefore, You can use a TabControl, and add TabPage to it both at design time as well as at runtime easily, and add controls of your choice to the different TabPage(s).
According to wikipedia:-
Tab is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents. which is essentially what you want to do.
As shown in the picture

You can then use Button to switch b/w different TabPage or show/hide TabPage.
It will not only solve your problem of designing at design time, it will also provide a "clean" user interface. Hope that helps!

Check this:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(GUI)