Back to design time support, but this time with ASP.NET server controls, most complex & simple controls built in the .NET framework are associated with an Auto Format.. link in the smart tag as the one shown in the figure, I showed in a previous post how to add links and properties to the smart tag of a control.

Ok, now when clicking that link a new window is popped out and you get a list of predefined formats on the left and a preview panel in the right like this.

Of course if you want to implement these features you will not have to design a new windows form and deal with all the head ache for previewing and those. You only will need some basic steps, I will show next, Assuming you already have your own custom control ( I will just use a simple LabelEx control for this sample);

1- Define your designer.

class LabelExDesigner : ControlDesigner
{

}

2- override the AutoFormats property and return some DesignerAutoFormats, to be used.

private DesignerAutoFormatCollection _autoformats = null;
public override DesignerAutoFormatCollection AutoFormats
{
    get
    {
        if (_autoformats == null)
        {
            _autoformats = new DesignerAutoFormatCollection();
            _autoformats.Add(new LabelExAutoFormat("Remove All"));
            _autoformats.Add(new LabelExAutoFormat("Reddish"));
            _autoformats.Add(new LabelExAutoFormat("Blueish"));
        }
        return _autoformats;
    }
}

3- Define a custom DesignerAutoFormat, which comes with an abstract Apply method, which is called when trying to apply a format on the preview control.

class LabelExAutoFormat : DesignerAutoFormat
{
    public LabelExAutoFormat(string name)
        : base(name)
    { }
    public override void Apply(Control control)
    {
        if (control is LabelEx)
        {
            LabelEx ctrl = control as LabelEx;
            switch (this.Name)
            {
                case "Remove All":
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.Reset();
                    break;
                case "Reddish":
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.ForeColor = ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#ff0000");
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.BackColor = ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#ffccff");
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.Font.Bold = true;
                    break;
                case "Blueish":
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.ForeColor = ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#0000ff");
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.BackColor = ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#99ccff");
                    ctrl.ControlStyle.Font.Italic = true;
                    break;
            }
        }
    }
}

4- And don't forget to decorate the control with the designer attribute

[Designer(typeof(LabelExDesigner))]
public class LabelEx : Label
{ 
}

And now everything is set and you have your own auto formats.

Here is the code and Happy Coding...