Cathi,

Lucky people in Seattle: excellent topic, your profound knowledge in .net, your pretty face in the picture (sorry the male in me could not resist <g>).

Do you ever make presentations on the East Coast? Here, in Boston, we have a very good .NET user group. Actually last night we had an excellent presentation by Jeff Prosise (book author) on some new features in ASP.NET 2.0. His presentation was sponsored by INETA.

>Hi All,
>
>If any of you are in the Seattle, WA area next Monday night (Sept 20th), I will be speaking at the Seattle's .NET user group.
>
>http://netda.net/Event/EventNewsletter.asp?EventDate=9/20/2004
>
>Here is the abstract:
>
>.NET Windows Forms Tips and Tricks
>
>Session Description:
>This session demonstrates a variety of advanced techniques that you can leverage to build more powerful and robust Windows Forms applications. We'll cover how to take advantage of the user’s system tray to run your application. We will also explore how to create custom drawn controls for a more robust user experience. Learn how to use extended providers to provide extra functionality for your controls. We will also explore ways to improve the look of your application by adding XP theming and non-rectangular windows as well as how to fade a form when closing. We will look how you can use the System.Drawing classes to provide rich image capabilities like image mapping and image transitioning. Next, learn techniques to improve the performance of your application by loading data on-demand. We will talk about how to use asynchronous techniques by working with Invoke to handle threading within Forms. Finally, learn ways to allow users to easily modify application settings by using
>the PropertyGrid control. If you're creating Windows applications using .NET, you'll certainly find some new tips and tricks in this session!