>>I am just adding another question to my initial post (the topic/title is the same).
>>
>>I created a 'base' form with a couple of controls and then another form inherited from the "base" form. But when I try to move around the controls on the child form VS won't allow me. I can see that the controls have a little icon "locked". Is this how UI inheritance work in the WinForms? That is, you cannot change size and position of the controls on the child form?
>
>Correct. If you look in the .Designer.cs file for the parent class that defines the controls you will see they are private.
>If you change this to protected you can access the properties of the control in code in the derived class (but not in the designer).
>Snag with this is that if you make subsequent changes to the parent form in the designer it's Designer.cs code is over-written.
>Safer bet is to expose it as a property in the parent form. e.g:

protected Button MyButton
>        {
>            get { return button1; }
>            set { button1 = value; }
>        }

None of this gives you the ability to reposition controls of the parent class in the designer of a child class. Maybe you can use docking to give the result you want?
>HTH,
>Viv

Thank you very much for clarifying how the visual inheritance works in .NET. Not even close to VFP in terms of flexibility but I will have to learn to live with it.