Hi MIke... you can't design your base control classes visually in .net. You must do it programmatically. Once you have done this, you can add them to the toobox and drag them onto forms, controls, etc.

Here is a sample of mine ( I have removed a lot of it for space sake).

using System ;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Collections;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Data;

namespace Quay.Base
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Summary description for Class1.
	/// </summary>
	public class frmBase : System.Windows.Forms.Form
	{
		#region Properties
		private bool _IsLoggedIn = false;
		private string _ServerName = "";
		private string _ServerCatalog = "";
		private char _Mode = ' ';

		public char Mode	
		{
			get	{return _Mode;}
			set	{_Mode = value;}
		}

		public bool IsLoggedIn	
		{
			get	{return _IsLoggedIn;}
			set	{_IsLoggedIn = value;}
		}

		public string ServerName	
		{
			get	{return _ServerName;}
			set	{_ServerName = value;}
		}
	
		public string ServerCatalog	
		{
			get	{return _ServerCatalog;}
			set	{_ServerCatalog = value;}
		}
		#endregion

		public frmBase() 
		{ 
			this.Font = new Font("Arial", 8);
		}
	}

	public class cboBase : System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
	{
		public cboBase() 
		{
			this.Font = new Font("Arial", 8);
		}	
	}

	public class chkBase : System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox
	{
		public chkBase() 
		{
			this.Font = new Font("Arial", 8);
		}
	}

	public class lblBase : System.Windows.Forms.Label 
	{
		public lblBase() 
		{
			this.Font = new Font("Arial", 8);
			this.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight;

			//this.BackColor = Color.White;
		}
	}	
}

>Hi,
>
>I have a VFP background and I'm dipping my toes into the C# world and have immediately stumbled :)
>
>I am accustomed to designing my base classes visually. For example, I subclass a native VFP button by dropping one on a form in the form designer, set the button's properties for Font, ForeColor, BackColor, Flat, etc. then save the button as a class. The button class is now available for drag and drop to other form. Simple and easy for me.
>
>How do I go about doing this (or somthing like it) in the C# .NET IDE? I can't seem to find a way to do the class design visually.
>
>
>TIA
>
>
>Mike