I am still wondering whether this is necessary in .NET or whether it is a VFP specific issue I should just drop.

Hey, Simon,

Just wanted to jump in, it's a good question, not just a VFP thing (and Bonnie gave the answer, you subclass your individual winform controls and then drop the ones you want onto a usercontrol [container] according to your needs).

When I went from VFP to .NET, I recreated many of my containers as .NET usercontrols, such as a common OK/Cancel button set that I wanted to drop on forms, a standard set of related controls for user report options.

Other examples might be a simple 'mover' container that has the two listboxes and buttons to add/remove,etc, or even a 'grid container' that has a grid and a few buttons and textboxes for searching the grid.

I look at it more as a need/requirement from an overall standpoint, with the development tool providing the means to do it.

Hope that helps...
Kevin