Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
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+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
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+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Embedded editing controls can be thought of as an extension to label
+ edit functionality (see Label
+ Editing for more information).
+
+
Every item and sub-item has a cell area on which
+ an editing control can be placed. In the simplest case
+ (LabelEdit set to true), the editing control is
+ basically a System.Windows.Forms.TextBox control. It is
+ actually an instance of BetterListViewTextBoxEmbeddedControl,
+ which is a TextBox wrapper implementing
+ IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl interface. Any control can be
+ used as embedded control in Bettter ListView if implements one of these
+ interfaces:
+
+
+
+
IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+
+
IBetterListViewEmbeddedControlExtended
+
+
+
The custom embedded control is shown on the image below. When user
+ clicks on sub-item text (an abbreviation of tea grading), an editing control
+ appears on the top-left corner of the cell area. The control contains
+ buttons for accepting and cancelling changes:
+
+
+
+
Implementing IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+
+
This interface contains prescription for minimum amount of
+ functionality required by an embedded control:
+
+
+
+
Get label text for currently edited data.
+
+
+
Data accepting and cancelling events (e.g. if the control has an
+ OK button).
+
+
+
Set control size given the cell area and positioning
+ data.
+
+
+
Move data from sub-item to the control.
+
+
+
Move data from the control to the sub-item.
+
+
+
Let's make a sample control. We will make a
+ TextBox-based embedded control for editing words in
+ lower-case. First, we inherit TextBox and implement
+ IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl interface:
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// Represents a custom control embeddable in Better ListView.
+/// </summary>
+public class TextBoxEmbeddedControl : TextBox, IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' Represents a custom control embeddable in Better ListView.
+''' </summary>
+Public Class TextBoxEmbeddedControl
+ Inherits TextBox
+ Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+
Then we implement the LabelText property:
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// current (edited) label text
+/// </summary>
+public string LabelText
+{
+ get
+ {
+ return Text.ToLower();
+ }
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' current (edited) label text
+''' </summary>
+Public ReadOnly Property LabelText() As String
+ Get
+ Return Text.ToLower()
+ End Get
+End Property
+
+
As you can see, the text of the TextBox is converted to
+ lower case since we want item/sub-item labels to be only in lower
+ case.
+
+
Next, we implement RequestAccept and
+ RequestCancel events:
''' <summary>
+''' request accepting updated data in BetterListView
+''' </summary>
+Public Event RequestAccept As EventHandler Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.RequestAccept
+
+''' <summary>
+''' request cancelling editing
+''' </summary>
+Public Event RequestCancel As EventHandler Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.RequestCancel
+
+
Next, we implement GetData and SetData
+ methods:
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// get data from the specified sub-item in control
+/// </summary>
+/// <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+public void GetData(BetterListViewSubItem subItem)
+{
+ Text = subItem.Text;
+}
+
+/// <summary>
+/// set data from control to the specified sub-item
+/// </summary>
+/// <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+public void SetData(BetterListViewSubItem subItem)
+{
+ subItem.Text = LabelText;
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' get data from the specified sub-item in control
+''' </summary>
+''' <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+Public Sub GetData(ByVal subItem As BetterListViewSubItem) Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.GetData
+
+ Text = subItem.Text
+
+End Sub
+
+''' <summary>
+''' set data from control to the specified sub-item
+''' </summary>
+''' <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+Public Sub SetData(ByVal subItem As BetterListViewSubItem) Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.SetData
+
+ subItem.Text = LabelText
+
+End Sub
+
+
These method are trivial since we need not to do any data
+ conversions (the only conversion here is lowering the case of edited text
+ in the LabelText getter).
+
+
The last method contained in the interface is SetSize
+ method, which needs not to be implemented (the body can be kept empty).
+ You implement this method only if you need to adjust control's size when
+ label edit starts.
+
+
The constructor should be implemented like this:
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "TextBoxEmbeddedControl" /> class.
+/// </summary>
+public TextBoxEmbeddedControl()
+{
+ AcceptsReturn = true;
+ CausesValidation = false;
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "TextBoxEmbeddedControl" /> class.
+''' </summary>
+Public Sub New()
+
+ AcceptsReturn = True
+ CausesValidation = False
+
+End Sub
+
+
The AcceptsReturn property is set to true
+ because we will handle the ENTER key (and raise
+ RequestAccept event appropriately).
+
+
The CausesValidation property is set to
+ false because it is a good practice in this situation.
+
+
Both input and output data are validated in the
+ IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl implementation and validation
+ of some third-party controls can prevent whole form with the control from
+ closing.
+
+
The last thing we implement is handling of the
+ ENTER key for accepting the data and the
+ ESCAPE key for cancelling:
Protected Overrides Sub OnKeyDown(e As KeyEventArgs)
+
+ If e.KeyCode = Keys.Enter AndAlso RequestAccept IsNot Nothing Then
+
+ RequestAccept(Me, EventArgs.Empty)
+
+ e.Handled = True
+
+ Return
+
+ End If
+
+ If e.KeyCode = Keys.Escape AndAlso RequestCancel IsNot Nothing Then
+
+ RequestCancel(Me, EventArgs.Empty)
+
+ e.Handled = True
+
+ Return
+
+ End If
+
+ MyBase.OnKeyDown(e)
+
+End Sub
+
+
+
It is a common good practice to implement interfaces explicitly.
+ The sample implementation is implicit for the sake of better
+ readability. Embedded controls implemented in BetterListView.dll are
+ implemented implicitly (and marked virtual) to allow for being inherited
+ (e.g. MyCustomControl : BetterListViewEmbeddedControl) and
+ you may possibly want to override any part of the interface
+ implementation.
The extended interface has currently only one method called
+ RequestEndEdit. This method can be called by the Better
+ ListView, when it asks the control whether it is ready to end editing. The
+ control can return a boolean value (true - continue
+ EndEdit, false - refuse to end editing). There
+ are many situations when the label editing is terminated (e.g. scrolling
+ the control, selecting items...) and terminating the label edit is not
+ always wanted (this is a case of
+ System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePicker control, which sometimes
+ behaves as being transparent for mouse clicks and thus being closed
+ because of click-through on the Better ListView client area - the
+ RequestEndEdit method fixes such possible behavior of third
+ party controls).
+
+
+
Sample Source Code
+
+
+
Form with Better ListView containing some columns and items:
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// Shows embedding of custom controls into Better ListView.
+/// </summary>
+internal sealed partial class EmbeddedControlSampleForm : Form
+{
+ /// <summary>
+ /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "EmbeddedControlSampleForm" /> class.
+ /// </summary>
+ public EmbeddedControlSampleForm()
+ {
+ InitializeComponent();
+
+ this.listView.BeginUpdate();
+
+ this.listView.Columns.AddRange(new[]
+ {
+ new BetterListViewColumnHeader("Document name", 160),
+ new BetterListViewColumnHeader("Access", 128)
+ });
+
+ this.listView.Items.AddRange(
+ new[]
+ {
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "hydro-report.pdf", "read" }),
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "magnetic_resonance.docx", "read write" }),
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "billing forms (2011).zip", "read" })
+ });
+
+ this.listView.LabelEditActivation = (BetterListViewLabelEditActivation.Keyboard | BetterListViewLabelEditActivation.SingleClick);
+ this.listView.LabelEditModeSubItems = BetterListViewLabelEditMode.CustomControl;
+
+ this.listView.EndUpdate();
+
+ this.listView.RequestEmbeddedControl += ListViewRequestEmbeddedControl;
+ }
+
+ private IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl ListViewRequestEmbeddedControl(object sender, BetterListViewRequestEmbeddedControlEventArgs eventArgs)
+ {
+ if (eventArgs.SubItem.Index == 1)
+ {
+ return (new DocumentAccessConrol());
+ }
+
+ return null;
+ }
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' Shows embedding of custom controls into Better ListView.
+''' </summary>
+Partial Friend NotInheritable Class EmbeddedControlSampleForm
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "EmbeddedControlSampleForm" /> class.
+ ''' </summary>
+ Public Sub New()
+
+ InitializeComponent()
+
+ ListView.BeginUpdate()
+
+ ListView.Columns.AddRange(
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader() { _
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader("Document name", 160),
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader("Access", 128)
+ })
+
+ ListView.Items.AddRange(
+ New BetterListViewItem() { _
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"hydro-report.pdf", "read"}),
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"magnetic_resonance.docx", "read write"}),
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"billing forms (2011).zip", "read"})
+ })
+
+ ListView.LabelEditActivation =
+ (BetterListViewLabelEditActivation.Keyboard Or BetterListViewLabelEditActivation.SingleClick)
+ ListView.LabelEditModeSubItems = BetterListViewLabelEditMode.CustomControl
+
+ ListView.EndUpdate()
+
+ AddHandler ListView.RequestEmbeddedControl, AddressOf ListViewRequestEmbeddedControl
+
+ End Sub
+
+ Private Function ListViewRequestEmbeddedControl(ByVal sender As Object,
+ ByVal eventArgs As BetterListViewRequestEmbeddedControlEventArgs) _
+ As IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+ If eventArgs.SubItem.Index = 1 Then
+ Return (New DocumentAccessConrol())
+ End If
+
+ Return Nothing
+
+ End Function
+
+End Class
+
+
DocumentAccessControl class used as complex embedded
+ control (see EmbeddedControlSampleForm sample in the provided
+ C# and Visual Basic samples for full source code):
+
+
C#
+
/// <summary>
+/// Represents a custom control embeddable in Better ListView.
+/// </summary>
+[ToolboxItem(false)]
+internal sealed partial class DocumentAccessConrol : UserControl, IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+{
+ private const string StringRead = "read";
+ private const string StringWrite = "write";
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// current (edited) label text
+ /// </summary>
+ public string LabelText
+ {
+ get
+ {
+ // convert control's state to label
+ if (this.checkBoxRead.Checked &&
+ this.checkBoxWrite.Checked)
+ {
+ return String.Format("{0} {1}", StringRead, StringWrite);
+ }
+
+ if (this.checkBoxRead.Checked)
+ {
+ return StringRead;
+ }
+
+ if (this.checkBoxWrite.Checked)
+ {
+ return StringWrite;
+ }
+
+ return String.Empty;
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// request accepting updated data in BetterListView
+ /// </summary>
+ public event EventHandler RequestAccept;
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// request cancelling editing
+ /// </summary>
+ public event EventHandler RequestCancel;
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "DocumentAccessConrol" /> class.
+ /// </summary>
+ public DocumentAccessConrol()
+ {
+ InitializeComponent();
+
+ //NOTE: disabling validation prevents form close cancellation
+ CausesValidation = false;
+
+ foreach (Control control in Controls)
+ {
+ control.LostFocus += ControlOnLostFocus;
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// get data from the specified sub-item in control
+ /// </summary>
+ /// <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ public void GetData(BetterListViewSubItem subItem)
+ {
+ // convert label to control's state
+ this.checkBoxRead.Checked = subItem.Text.Contains(StringRead);
+ this.checkBoxWrite.Checked = subItem.Text.Contains(StringWrite);
+ }
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// set data from control to the specified sub-item
+ /// </summary>
+ /// <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ public void SetData(BetterListViewSubItem subItem)
+ {
+ subItem.Text = LabelText;
+ }
+
+ /// <summary>
+ /// set control size
+ /// </summary>
+ /// <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ /// <param name = "placement">placement of the embedded control within sub-item</param>
+ public void SetSize(BetterListViewSubItem subItem, BetterListViewEmbeddedControlPlacement placement)
+ {
+ // keep size of the control unchanged
+ }
+
+ private void ControlOnLostFocus(object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
+ {
+ //
+ // NOTE: this code is needed just for hiding embedded control with sub-controls when user changes active form while label editing
+ //
+ bool anyFocused = Focused;
+
+ if (anyFocused == false)
+ {
+ foreach (Control control in Controls)
+ {
+ if (control.Focused)
+ {
+ anyFocused = true;
+
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (anyFocused == false)
+ {
+ RequestAccept(this, eventArgs);
+ }
+ }
+
+ private void ButtonOKClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
+ {
+ RequestAccept(this, e);
+ }
+
+ private void ButtonCancelClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
+ {
+ RequestCancel(this, e);
+ }
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
''' <summary>
+''' Represents a custom control embeddable in Better ListView.
+''' </summary>
+<ToolboxItem(False)>
+Partial Friend NotInheritable Class DocumentAccessConrol
+ Inherits UserControl
+ Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl
+
+ Private Const StringRead As String = "read"
+ Private Const StringWrite As String = "write"
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' current (edited) label text
+ ''' </summary>
+ Public ReadOnly Property LabelText() As String Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.LabelText
+ Get
+ ' convert control's state to label
+ If CheckBoxRead.Checked AndAlso CheckBoxWrite.Checked Then
+ Return [String].Format("{0} {1}", StringRead, StringWrite)
+ End If
+
+ If CheckBoxRead.Checked Then
+ Return StringRead
+ End If
+
+ If CheckBoxWrite.Checked Then
+ Return StringWrite
+ End If
+
+ Return [String].Empty
+ End Get
+ End Property
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' request accepting updated data in BetterListView
+ ''' </summary>
+ Public Event RequestAccept As EventHandler Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.RequestAccept
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' request cancelling editing
+ ''' </summary>
+ Public Event RequestCancel As EventHandler Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.RequestCancel
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "DocumentAccessConrol" /> class.
+ ''' </summary>
+ Public Sub New()
+
+ InitializeComponent()
+
+ 'NOTE: disabling validation prevents form close cancellation
+ CausesValidation = False
+
+ For Each control As Control In Controls
+ AddHandler control.LostFocus, AddressOf ControlOnLostFocus
+ Next
+
+ End Sub
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' get data from the specified sub-item in control
+ ''' </summary>
+ ''' <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ Public Sub GetData(ByVal subItem As BetterListViewSubItem) Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.GetData
+
+ ' convert label to control's state
+ CheckBoxRead.Checked = subItem.Text.Contains(StringRead)
+ CheckBoxWrite.Checked = subItem.Text.Contains(StringWrite)
+
+ End Sub
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' set data from control to the specified sub-item
+ ''' </summary>
+ ''' <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ Public Sub SetData(ByVal subItem As BetterListViewSubItem) Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.SetData
+
+ subItem.Text = LabelText
+
+ End Sub
+
+ ''' <summary>
+ ''' set control size
+ ''' </summary>
+ ''' <param name = "subItem">sub-item whose data are being edited</param>
+ ''' <param name = "placement">placement of the embedded control within sub-item</param>
+ Public Sub SetSize(ByVal subItem As BetterListViewSubItem,
+ ByVal placement As BetterListViewEmbeddedControlPlacement) _
+ Implements IBetterListViewEmbeddedControl.SetSize
+
+ ' keep size of the control unchanged
+
+ End Sub
+
+ Private Sub ControlOnLostFocus(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal eventArgs As EventArgs)
+
+ '
+ ' NOTE: this code is needed just for hiding embedded control with sub-controls when user changes active form while label editing
+ '
+ Dim anyFocused As Boolean = Focused
+
+ If anyFocused = False Then
+ For Each control As Control In Controls
+ If control.Focused Then
+ anyFocused = True
+
+ Exit For
+ End If
+ Next
+ End If
+
+ If anyFocused = False Then
+ RaiseEvent RequestAccept(Me, eventArgs)
+ End If
+
+ End Sub
+
+ Private Sub ButtonOKClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles ButtonOK.Click
+ RaiseEvent RequestAccept(Me, e)
+ End Sub
+
+ Private Sub ButtonCancelClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles ButtonCancel.Click
+ RaiseEvent RequestCancel(Me, e)
+ End Sub
+
+End Class
+
+
+
+
+
Better ListView: Ultimate .NET ListView replacement control for WinForms (C#, VB.NET)
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView offers many options for searching items by typing on
+ keyboard and programmaticaly (FindItemWithText,
+ FindItemsWithText methods). Search can be extended to sub-items
+ and event multiple items can be contained in a search result.
+
+
Search can be customized with SearchSettings property.
+ This structure contains three other properties:
+
+
+
+Mode
+
Specifies how the searching is done on each item/sub-item
+ string.
+
+
+
+Disabled
+
Searching is disabled.
+
+
+
+Prefix
+
Search is restricted to text prefix.
+
+
+
+PrefixOrSubstring
+
Search query can match any substring, if nothing found by
+ prefix.
+
+
+
+Substring
+
Search query can match any substring.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Options
+
Additional options for searching.
+
+
+
+CaseSensitive
+
The search is case-sensitive.
+
+
+
+FirstWordOnly
+
Search is restricted to the first word of searched
+ text.
+
+
+
+None
+
No options active.
+
+
+
+PlaySound
+
Sound is played, when nothing is found.
+
+
+
+PrefixPreference
+
Results matched by prefix are prefered among other (e.g.
+ when searching for pla, then the text
+ player is prefered among the word
+ applause).
+
+
+
+SelectableItemsOnly
+
Restrict the search to selectable items only.
+
+
+
+WordSearch
+
Searched text si first split into words and searching is
+ done on each word separately.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SubItemIndices
+
Specifies sub-items on which the search is done; if the
+ collection is empty, than all sub-items are searched.
+
+
+
+
There is a default one-second delay to register when user stopped
+ typing and the search is discarded. A new search is initiated when user
+ starts typing after this interval has passed. This interval can be set via
+ SearchTimeoutDelay property.
+
+
The delay is not relevant when user types the same letter several
+ times and there are other items beginning with that letter. If there are
+ items named ab, ac,
+ ad, then the selection cycles through these items as
+ long as the user keeps pressing A key. This works
+ essentialy the same way as in the Windows Explorer.
+
+
+
The keyboard search works, of course, only when the control has
+ focus. You can ensure this (e.g. when showing the form) by calling
+ Focus method on Better ListView.
+
+
Sample Source Code
+
+
+
C#
+
this.listView.BeginUpdate();
+
+// fill the ListView with items in two columns
+this.listView.Columns.AddRange(
+ new[]
+ {
+ new BetterListViewColumnHeader("Word", 128),
+ new BetterListViewColumnHeader("Synonym List", 160)
+ });
+
+this.listView.Items.AddRange(
+ new[]
+ {
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "apparently", "evidently, presumably, seemingly" }),
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "blunt", "brusque, curt, snippy" }),
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "class", "caste, estate, folk" }),
+ new BetterListViewItem(new[] { "detailed", "elaborate, full, thorough" }),
+ });
+
+// search in substrings
+BetterListViewSearchMode searchMode = BetterListViewSearchMode.Substring;
+
+// use case-sensitive searching and play sounds
+BetterListViewSearchOptions searchOptions = (BetterListViewSearchOptions.CaseSensitive | BetterListViewSearchOptions.PlaySound);
+
+// search in the first and second column
+//NOTE: empty array also means searching in all columns
+int[] subItemIndices = new[] { 0, 1 };
+
+// set-up the search
+this.listView.SearchSettings = new BetterListViewSearchSettings(searchMode, searchOptions, subItemIndices);
+
+this.listView.EndUpdate();
+
+
Visual Basic
+
ListView.BeginUpdate()
+
+' fill the ListView with items in two columns
+ListView.Columns.AddRange(
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader() { _
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader("Word", 128),
+ New BetterListViewColumnHeader("Synonym List", 160)
+ })
+
+ListView.Items.AddRange(
+ New BetterListViewItem() { _
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() _
+ {"apparently", "evidently, presumably, seemingly"}),
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"blunt", "brusque, curt, snippy"}),
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"class", "caste, estate, folk"}),
+ New BetterListViewItem(New String() {"detailed", "elaborate, full, thorough"})
+ })
+
+' search in substrings
+Dim searchMode As BetterListViewSearchMode = BetterListViewSearchMode.Substring
+
+' use case-sensitive searching and play sounds
+Dim searchOptions As BetterListViewSearchOptions =
+ (BetterListViewSearchOptions.CaseSensitive Or BetterListViewSearchOptions.PlaySound)
+
+' search in the first and second column
+'NOTE: empty array also means searching in all columns
+Dim subItemIndices As Integer() = New Integer() {0, 1}
+
+' set-up the search
+ListView.SearchSettings = New BetterListViewSearchSettings (searchMode, searchOptions, subItemIndices)
+
+ListView.EndUpdate()
+
+
+
+
+
Better ListView: Ultimate .NET ListView replacement control for WinForms (C#, VB.NET)
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Owner drawing allow to customize appearance of any element, element
+ part and the control itself:
+
+
+
+
Drawing Over Control Parts
+
+
+
The simple way to draw over control parts is by using drawing
+ events:
+
+
+
+
DrawBackground
+
+
+
DrawColumnHeader
+
+
+
DrawColumnHeaderBackground
+
+
+
DrawGroup
+
+
+
DrawGroupBackground
+
+
+
DrawItem
+
+
+
DrawItemBackground
+
+
+
DrawInsertionMark
+
+
+
Each of these events contains System.Drawing.Graphics
+ object in event data with which custom drawing is possible. Areas of
+ drawing are also provided. For example, to draw inside item inner area,
+ there is a
+ BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs.ItemBounds.BoundsInner
+ property containing the rectangle.
+
+
+
If you want to paint outside element areas, set
+ OptimizedInvalidation property to false. This
+ will ensure your custom drawing code will be called in every redraw
+ cycle.
+
+
Replacing Default Drawing by Custom Drawing
+
+
+
Owner drawing events are always called after the default drawing, so
+ it is possible only to draw over exisiting drawing. When you need turn off
+ some painting and do your own drawing instead of the default one (e.g.
+ draw rotated text instead the straight one), you have to create your
+ custom control inheriting from BetterListView:
+
+
C#
+
class OwnerDrawBetterListView : BetterListView
+{
+ // ...
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
Class OwnerDrawBetterListView Inherits BetterListView
+ ' ...
+End Class
+
+
Then you can override one of the drawing methods:
+
+
+
+
OnDrawBackground
+
+
+
OnDrawColumnHeader
+
+
+
OnDrawGroup
+
+
+
OnDrawGroupBackground
+
+
+
OnDrawItem
+
+
+
OnDrawItemBackground
+
+
+
OnDrawInsertionMark
+
+
+
This gives you more control over the painting, because your drawing
+ code can be called before or
+ after the default drawing, depending on where and if
+ you call base implementation.
+
+
Every part of the default drawing has a switch so you can turn the
+ default drawing off. For example, if you want not to draw default text on
+ some item, set BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs.DrawText
+ property to false.
+
+
It is also possible to do custom drawing as the very last drawing of
+ the whole control. To do this, override DrawingRedrawCore
+ method and do your drawing after calling the base implementation:
+
+
C#
+
protected override void DrawingRedrawCore(Graphics grfx)
+{
+ base.DrawingRedrawCore(grfx);
+
+ // do your custom drawing
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
Protected Overrides Sub DrawingRedrawCore(grfx As Graphics)
+
+ MyBase.DrawingRedrawCore(grfx)
+
+ ' do your custom drawing
+
+End Sub
+
+
+
Overriding Item and Control States
+
+
+
The appearance of element depends not only on its state, but also on
+ the control state.
+
+
If you override one of the drawing methods (e.g.
+ OnDrawItem), you can modify event data before calling base
+ class implementation (e.g. base.OnDrawItem).
+
+
For example, BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs contains
+ ItemStateInfo property. By modifying this property, you can
+ force drawing item in any state you wish.
+
+
BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs also contains two
+ properties regarding control state:
+
+
+
+DrawEnabled
+
Draw item as if the control is in enabled state
+ (BetterListView.Enabled is true).
+
+
+
+DrawFocused
+
Draw item as if the control in in focused state
+ (BetterListView.Focused is true).
+
+
+
+
By default, these properties correspond to actual control's state,
+ but they can be modified. For example, one may want to set
+ DrawFocused to true on every item that is selected, so the
+ item will be highlighted even if the control loses focus.
+
+
The control state properties are available only in the
+ BetterListViewItemEventArgs, but element states can be
+ modified in all painting event handlers (also column headers and
+ groups).
+
+
+
Sample Source Code
+
+
+
The following sample shows owner drawing of item background:
+
+
C#
+
this.listView.BeginUpdate();
+
+this.listView.Items.Add("Item with owner-drawn image and background.");
+
+this.listView.View = BetterListViewView.Tile;
+// turn off automatic image sizing to make space for image even when items do not have any images set
+this.listView.LayoutOptions = (BetterListViewLayoutOptions.Auto & ~BetterListViewLayoutOptions.AutoSizeItemImage);
+// set 4-pixel boundary around image
+this.listView.LayoutItemsCurrent.ImagePadding = new Padding(4);
+// set image size to be 50 by 50 pixels (it is possible to set image sizes for sub-items as well by adding more Size instances in the collection)
+this.listView.LayoutItemsCurrent.ImageSizes = new ReadOnlyCollection<Size>(new[] { new Size(50, 50) });
+
+this.listView.EndUpdate();
+
+// we would like to draw over item's foreground (custom image)
+this.listView.DrawItem += ListViewDrawItem;
+// we would like to draw over item's background
+this.listView.DrawItemBackground += ListViewDrawItemBackground;
+
+
Visual Basic
+
ListView.BeginUpdate()
+
+ListView.Items.Add("Item with owner-drawn image and background.")
+
+ListView.View = BetterListViewView.Tile
+' turn off automatic image sizing to make space for image even when items do not have any images set
+ListView.LayoutOptions = (BetterListViewLayoutOptions.Auto And Not BetterListViewLayoutOptions.AutoSizeItemImage)
+' set 4-pixel boundary around image
+ListView.LayoutItemsCurrent.ImagePadding = New Padding(4)
+' set image size to be 50 by 50 pixels (it is possible to set image sizes for sub-items as well by adding more Size instances in the collection)
+ListView.LayoutItemsCurrent.ImageSizes = New ReadOnlyCollection(Of Size)(New Size() {New Size(50, 50)})
+
+ListView.EndUpdate()
+
+' we would like to draw over item's foreground (custom image)
+AddHandler ListView.DrawItem, AddressOf ListViewDrawItem
+' we would like to draw over item's background
+AddHandler ListView.DrawItemBackground, AddressOf ListViewDrawItemBackground
+
+
DrawItem event handler draws on the item image
+ area:
+
+
C#
+
void ListViewDrawItem(object sender, BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs eventArgs)
+{
+ eventArgs.Graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.HighQuality;
+
+ Pen pen = new Pen(Color.BlueViolet, 2.5f);
+
+ // draw ellipse in the image area
+ eventArgs.Graphics.DrawEllipse(
+ pen,
+ eventArgs.ItemBounds.SubItemBounds[0].BoundsImage);
+
+ pen.Dispose();
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
Sub ListViewDrawItem(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal eventArgs As BetterListViewDrawItemEventArgs)
+
+ eventArgs.Graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.HighQuality
+
+ Dim pen As New Pen(Color.BlueViolet, 2.5F)
+
+ ' draw ellipse in the image area
+ eventArgs.Graphics.DrawEllipse(pen, eventArgs.ItemBounds.SubItemBounds(0).BoundsImage)
+
+ pen.Dispose()
+
+End Sub
+
+
DrawItemBackground event handler draws on the item
+ background area:
+
+
C#
+
void ListViewDrawItemBackground(object sender, BetterListViewDrawItemBackgroundEventArgs eventArgs)
+{
+ Brush brush = new LinearGradientBrush(
+ eventArgs.ItemBounds.BoundsInner,
+ Color.FromArgb(64, Color.DarkSeaGreen),
+ Color.Transparent,
+ LinearGradientMode.ForwardDiagonal);
+
+ // draw over the item's background in the inner area
+ eventArgs.Graphics.FillRectangle(brush, eventArgs.ItemBounds.BoundsInner);
+
+ brush.Dispose();
+}
+
+
Visual Basic
+
Sub ListViewDrawItemBackground(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal eventArgs As BetterListViewDrawItemBackgroundEventArgs)
+
+ Dim brush As Brush = New LinearGradientBrush(
+ eventArgs.ItemBounds.BoundsInner,
+ Color.FromArgb(64, Color.DarkSeaGreen),
+ Color.Transparent,
+ LinearGradientMode.ForwardDiagonal)
+
+ ' draw over the item's background in the inner area
+ eventArgs.Graphics.FillRectangle(brush, eventArgs.ItemBounds.BoundsInner)
+
+ brush.Dispose()
+
+End Sub
+
+
+
+
+
Better ListView: Ultimate .NET ListView replacement control for WinForms (C#, VB.NET)
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
+
+
+
+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
Better ListView is a list view control for .NET Windows Forms
+
Designed as a replacement for the regular .NET list view control.
+
Compatible with: Visual Studio 2015, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005, with full designer support.
+
For C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), managed C++, and other CLI languages.
+
Compatible with .NET 4.5, .NET 4, .NET 3.5, .NET 3, .NET 2, and newer. Supports .NET Client Profile.
+
Runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, and newer, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
+
Better ListView has more features and flexibility, always uses the current system theme (including Aero support), and removes limitations of the regular .NET list view control.
+
Minimum learning needed. Better ListView can be used just like the regular list view.
+
Written in pure managed C# code. It is fast, light-weight and optimized for 10k+ items.
+
Easy royalty-free deployment. Single DLL file that has just 250kB when compressed.
+
The assembly is FIPS-compliant, CLS-compliant, digitally signed and strongly named.
+
Tested in the real world by thousands of users
+
+
+
+
+
Extra features summary
+
+Better ListView is fast and flicker-free, supports hierarchical items, has improved grouping, better drag & drop and item reordering support, better column headers, inbuilt sorting, multi-column sorting, better images support, context menus for column headers and items, embedded controls for editing support, automatic and custom sizing of items and images, thumbnails view, richer event data, item text formatting, XML and binary serialization, data-binding, owner-drawing options, better tooltips, powerful hit-test, improved usability, easy saving/loading of contents into file or string, multi-line items, and more.
+
+
+Component Owl created the one and only tool I don’t want to be without when it comes to software developing in Visual Studio. Also, I’ve been working as software user/developer for the last 26 years, and I have never before experienced a support that really goes the needed extra mile to make things work, like the guys at Component Owl do.
+
Göran Alfvén, Sweden
+
+
+The control is very easy and intuitive to use and is well documented.
+
DevProConnections.com Review
+
+
+Better List View is awesome.
+
Daniel N
+
+
Hierarchical items
+
+You can create tree-like structures in Better ListView; inbuilt drag & drop hierarchical reordering of items.
+
+
Improved grouping
+
+Better grouping – customizable group headers look and behavior, collapsible, image support, context menu support, focusable, etc. Each group header can be customized individually.
+
+
Save/load contents with 1 line of code
+
+You can save or load the contents of Better ListView in just 1 line of code, either to file or string. Both XML and binary serialization is supported.
+
+
Double-buffered and flicker free
+
+Simply put, Better ListView is smooth. Regular listview requires multiple anti-flicker techniques, but you do not have to worry about that with Better ListView. Better ListView is optimized for 100k+ items.
+
+
Column header images
+
+You can use images in column headers. Custom image sizes are supported.
+
+
+
+
Sub-item images
+
+You can set images to list view sub-items. Regular list view allows you to set only one image per list view item, but Better ListView can show image for every sub-item (in every column).
+
+
Image-List and Image Support
+
+Better ListView supports both image list, or individual image objects (System.Drawing.Image). Regular list view forces you to use ImageList object.
+
+
Custom list view Image size
+
+You can use any image size in the list view. Better ListView can also automatically resize images with preserving aspect ratio.
+
+
Drag & drop with insertion mark
+
+Highly customizable drag-drop for both internal and external drag-drop. You can use drop highlight or insertion mark drag drop modes.
+
+
+
+
List view item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt item reordering and item drag & drop inserting at the position specified by user. Drag & drop preview is shown using an insertion mark.
+
+
Column-header reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt easy drag & drop column header reordering that is much easier to use than in the regular list view. Insertion mark is shown, auto-scrolling is supported.
+
+
+
+
Auto-scroll for column header reordering and item reordering
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt auto-scrolling for column header and item reordering.
+
+
Column headers can be shown in all views
+
+Better ListView can display column headers in all views - Details, SmallIcons, LargeIcons, List, Tile, Thumbnails. This allows users to sort items in all views. Additionally, you can also hide the column headers even in the details view.
+
+
+
+
Thumbnails view mode
+
+Better ListView supports additional "thumbnails" view mode that allows you to view images of large sizes. The images are automatically and smoothly resized with preserved aspect ratio. You can define the maximum/minimum desired image sizes.
+
+
Image shadows, borders and padding
+All images in Better ListView can have border or shadow specified. You can also specify padding that gives you space for owner drawing (eg. overlay images). This can be used in all views.
+
+Image shadows like in Windows 7 theme are supported. Windows Explorer uses very similar shadows for image thumbnails.
+
+
+
+
Multi-column sorting
+
+You can sort by multiple columns in Better ListView. Simply shift+click a secondary (or third, etc) column to add it to the current sort. Zero code needed. Additionally, the background of the primary (first) sort column can be highlighted.
+
+
+
+
Inbuilt sorting and natural sorting
+
+Better ListView has inbuilt list view sorting that works out of the box. You no longer need to implement your own item comparer. If custom comparer is needed, you can inherit from the Better ListView comparer to save time.
+
+
Richer event data
+
+Many events have richer event data that allow you to do extra operations or tell you extra useful information. The richer events include: AfterItemSort, BeforeDrag, BeforeItemSort, ColumnClick (allows you to cancel sort), DragDropException, DrawBackground, DrawColumnHeaderBackground, DrawColumnHeader, DrawItemBackground, DrawItem, HitTestChanged, ItemActivate (event data tells you how the item got activated - mouse, keyboard or code), ItemDrag, ItemDrop, ItemReorder, ItemSearch, LabelEdit, RequestEmebeddedControl.
+
+
Checkboxes in all views
+
+You can have checkboxes in LargeIcons view, SmallIcons view, List view, Thumbnails view and of course also in the Details view.
+
+
+
+
Three state checkboxes
+Three state checkboxes are supported in Better ListView:
+
+
+
+
Hide or show checkboxes of specific ListView Items
+
+You can hide checkbox for any ListViewItem. You can also show checkboxes only for specified items. All list items in Better ListView have "AllowShowCheckBox" property.
+
+
+
+
Powerful list view tooltips
+
+You can display tooltips for nearly any part of Better ListView - tooltips for items, sub-items, checkboxes, item images, sub-item images, column headers, column header images, column header borders, and even for custom areas (regions). Owner-drawn tooltips are supported.
+
+
+
+
Uses current Windows theme
+
+Instead of implementing custom, un-native look and feel, Better ListView always automatically fully uses the current system theme. It supports Aero as well. Better ListView always looks great and feels right to the user.
+
+
XML and binary serialization of everything
+
+Every part of Better ListView (items, sub-items, column headers) can be both binary and XML serialized. You can easily XML serialize whole list view (or binary serialize) to save it to file or transfer items between controls. Standard ways of .NET serialization can be used (BinaryFormatter, XmlSerializer).
+
+
Owner drawing
+
+Better ListView allows you to draw over the client area, items and column headers. Contrary to .NET ListView, owner drawing is fully operational even when the system uses Aero theme. You can draw separately to background and foreground parts of Better ListView without worrying about proper drawing order. Owner drawing events provide rich data, including exact item state and areas of every item part.
+
+
+
+
Multi-line items
+
+Better ListView supports multi-line items. Items with very long text can be displayed on multiple lines. Highly customizable and powerful: Focused items can have custom number of lines; hard line breaks supported as well. Foreground overlay "watermark" images are easily achievable using owner-drawing.
+
+
+
+
Background image support
+
+Display background image in Better ListView easily using the BackgroundImage property. Many layouts (stretch, tile, none), alignments (top, bottom, left, right, center and combinations) are supported, as well as customizable opacity.
+
+
+
+
Context menu for column headers, list items, and empty area
+
+Better ListView supports 3 types of context menus: Column header context menu, list view items context menu, and empty area context menu (when right-clicking white space).
+
+
+
+
Advanced hit-test with detailed information
+The hit test in Better ListView returns very detailed information. It tells you not only the location (Client Area, Sub-Item, Sub-Item Text, Sub-Item Image, Checkbox, Column Header Image, and many more), but it also tells you the state of the item, and part of the item (left or right).
+
+
+
+
Customizable search-by-typing
+
+Better ListView has excellent customization functionality for find-as-you-type item searching. The search modes include: Prefix (searchs from beginning of items), Substring (search any part of item text), Prefix + Substring, or Disabled. Additionally, search options include: Case sensitive, search first word only, play sound when item not found, prefer prefixes, search whole words. You can also restrict the search to only certain columns. You can also call "FindItemsWithText" function to find items from code.
+
+
Display text when the list view is empty
+You can display a gray text centered in the list view if it's empty to hint or educate users. This will make your software more user friendly.
+
+
+
+
Embed controls for item editing
+Inbuilt in-line editing support includes label edit, combobox edit, date picker edit. You can also embed any custom control for in-line editing. Sub-item editing is supported. Highly customizable.
+
+
+
+
ListView item text formatting
+
+Supports both text trimming and auto-ellipsis for text that's too long. You can choose from: TrimCharacter, TrimWord, EllipsisCharacter, EllipsisWord, EllipsisPath (for file paths). Column header text can be broken into multiple lines.
+
+
Focusable ListView sub-items and groups
+
+Focus sub-items or groups in Better ListView easily with keyboard. Just use the arrow keys. (This is impossible with the regular .NET ListView)
+
+
+You can set custom sizes for item text area and item images. You can also set custom size for column header text area and column header images. (Text area size is different from font size, text area size basically defines the size of the list view item.) This enables you to make tiny/huge column headers or list view items.
+
+
+
+
+It's an odd thing when you're inspired by a form component, but Component Owl
+with their Better ListView has done it. Love its native feel.
+
Daniel N, USA
+
+
More advantages of our improved list view component:
+
+
Developer friendly: All classes and properties are as similar to the regular list view as possible. Everything is intuitive, very little learning is needed. You can use Better ListView immediately. Save time and ship sooner.
+
Better ListView has improved usability and fixed behavior. All Windows users are familiar with the list view used in Windows Explorer. Better ListView mimicks behavior and look & feel of the Windows Explorer list view as much as possible to leverage the existing user knowledge. Using Better ListView is pleasant for users. Many other list view components implement custom look and behavior and can oftentimes downright frustrate users (many controls don't even support mouse-wheel scrolling!) This doesn't happen with Better ListView.
+
Guaranteed support and continued development: Better ListView is developed as a joint-venture of two software companies that use Better ListView in their main products (popular Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop). These applications are used by thousands of users daily. This is your guarantee that Better ListView will be supported and developed in the future.
+
Tested in real world applications by thousands of users: Because Better ListView is used in professional consumer desktop software applications - Swift To-Do List and ImagingShop, thousands of users work with Better ListView every day. Although we use unit tests that cover most of code, and do thorough inhouse testing, this is your true guarantee that it is tested thoroughly in the real world. It is extremely stable.
+
Better ListView does not inherit from the regular .NET list view. It is written in pure managed C# code and is flexible, light weight, and fast. Extensions of the regular .net list view only go so far. Better ListView goes further. Soure code licenses are also available for ultimate customization.
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+In addition to creating a new List View control to incorporate broader flexibility and functionality, Better ListView could also be called Fixed ListView, as it corrects a number of annoying problems with the standard List View that Microsoft delivers to Visual Studio customers.
+
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ public class InvisibleControl : UserControl
}
I have created a very simple control called SampleControl:
-
+
Finally, I set version of the assembly 3.3.0.0 (I chose just something else
than 1.0.0.0 to see where the specific version number appears).
Custom Transparent Icon for the Toolbox
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ than 1.0.0.0 to see where the specific version number appears).
(BMP, JPEG, PNG and ICO). However, you need to
create 256-color BMP image to ensure transparency. The transparent color is determined by bottom left
pixel of the icon. Transparency works for magenta (#ff00ff):
-
+
The icon file should have same name as the control class (i.e.
SampleControl.BMP).
Finally, use ToolboxBitmapAttribute to link icon with the control class:
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ public partial class SampleControl : UserControl
the icon under custom folder named Resources, I need to reference
Resources.SampleControl.bmp instead of just SampleControl.bmp.
Here is the resulting transparent icon in Toolbox:
-
+
Marking the Control as Toolbox Item
We can mark control as toolbox item by adding a ToolboxItemAttribute
with defaultType parameter set to true:
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ Installer approach requires the assembly being installed in GAC, hence the
strong name is necessary there.
To give an assembly a strong name, open project properties and find
Signing tab:
-
+
Check the "Sign the assembly" option and select "<New...>"
from the combo box. This will create a new .SNK file in your project which will
be used to sign the assembly. You can also browse for existing key file. If you
@@ -472,9 +472,9 @@ identification.
To install component into Visual Studio Toolbox manually, open some form or
control in designer, open the Toolbox window (Control+Alt+X), right-click on the
Toolbox window and select "Choose Items...":
-
+
The "Choose Toolbox Items" dialog will show up:
-
+
You can browse for DLL file with your component by clicking the "Browse..."
button.
This is the simplest way of putting component in the Toolbox without extra
@@ -502,7 +502,7 @@ subkey named "Toolbox" with single string value "TabNam
tab name as data. When you add such control in the Toolbox, it will reside under
new tab with the specified name:
-
+
The control should also appear in "Choose Toolbox Items" dialog box if it
is installed in Global Assembly Cache.
The control pops up in the Toolbox automatically in
@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@ newer version.
If you have added the component from GAC (these components also appear in the
"Choose Toolbox Items" dialog box), the "Specific Version" property of the
reference is true by default:
-
+
This means that even if you install a newer version of the component in GAC,
the project will still reference the older version and both versions will reside
in GAC.
@@ -590,7 +590,7 @@ components into the Toolbox.
Visual Studio and delete all .TBD files in the following folder:
The installation consists of putting the control in GAC (see previous
section for more information) and creating registry keys.
Suppose we have the SampleControl installed in GAC:
-
+
We will make reference to this assembly from registry by creating the
following key:
32-bit OS: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ToolboxControlsInstaller\SampleControl, Version=3.7.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3cc4c7b61201d46c
@@ -760,19 +760,19 @@ Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010) or "2.0" (support for Visual Studio 2008, 2010,
2012, 2013).
Now we zip the two files and rename extension of the archive to .VSI. We
should end up with the following three files:
-
+
If you double-click the SampleControl.vsi, the Visual Studio
Content Installer opens up. You can start the installer from command line as
well:
By default, the VSI package is not signed. This causes showing: "Publisher:
Unknown" label on the first page of the installation wizard and an unpleasant
dialog box later on:
-
+
To avoid this, you need to digitally sign the VSI package. Of course, you
have to own a digital certificate (usually an X.509 certificate stored in .PFX
file).
@@ -806,7 +806,7 @@ programmatically. You need to delete the control's DLL located at
component will not be found and disappear. Similarly, you can just
delete the control from the Toolbox or select "Choose Items..." from context
menu and untick the control there:
-
+
Drawbacks of Using VSI Package
One drawback of using VSI package is that the installer runs every version of
VS IDE you have installed and which is supported by the package. The form will
@@ -816,7 +816,7 @@ offers whether to rename, replace or skip the file (e.g. SampleControl.dll). Use
update, which also slows down installation and requires user interaction.
You also cannot specify custom Toolbox tab. All controls are installed under
"My Controls" tab:
This approach brings full control over the integration and other benefits. The VSPackages are loaded on-demand, so
the integration process won't slow down a custom installer.
@@ -830,13 +830,13 @@ previously).
and 2013, so we will work in Visual Studio 2010.
Select "File - New - Project.." (Control+Shift+N) and
select the "Visual Studio Package" template:
-
+
This will start a "Visual Studio Package Wizard":
-
+
You can leave most options in the wizard on defaults. Leave all the check boxes unchecked
on "Page 3 of 7" and "Page 7 of 7":
-
-
+
+
Now we will take a look on the generated files. Open the Guids.cs
file:
@@ -868,7 +868,7 @@ Visual Studio's point of view.
Another important file here is source.extension.vsixmanifest.
If you double-click on the file in Solution Explorer, the VSIX Manifest Designer
will show up:
-
+
Not all the fields are mandatory, but I will fill all of them nevertheless:
ID - Unique product "Identity" - the ID is limited to
@@ -894,7 +894,7 @@ will show up:
Adding Support for Visual Studio 2012/2013
We have specified supported Visual Studio Editions in VSIX Manifest Designer,
through the "Visual Studio Version and Edition" dialog box:
-
+
As you can see, only Visual Studio 2010 is supported here because VSIX is new
to 2010 and of course VS 2010 does not know about 2012/2013. We have to
source.extensions.vsixmanifest file for manual editing. Select the file
@@ -974,7 +974,7 @@ attributes:
InstalledProductRegistrationAttribute refer to keys in
VSPackage.resx. You can open this file and edit package name and
description there:
-
+
Now we write methods within SampleVsPackage class that work with the Toolbox:
private const string ComponentFile = "SampleControl.dll";
@@ -1021,7 +1021,7 @@ order to use ToolboxService.
Building the Package
Before building the SampleVsPackage project, open project
properties, find the VSIX tab and uncheck all the options:
-
+
Finally, build the project. Just two files, SampleVsPackage.dll
and SampleVsPackage.pdb, should be generated.
Registering the Package
@@ -1056,7 +1056,7 @@ Assembly.CodeBase property for more information).
that your VSPackage assembly is located in GAC (Global Assembly Cache). See
section Installing the Control in GAC for more information.
You can check out the registry after the package registration:
-
+
Package Registration for Visual Studio 2012/2013
Regrettably, simply registering package is not enough for Visual Studio 2012/2013 to load
it (see this
@@ -1110,7 +1110,7 @@ just call "devenv.exe /Setup".
Windows Forms Designer and show Toolbox (Cotrol+Alt+X). You can notice your
package name displaying in status bar for a while, then SampleControl should show up in the
Toolbox under "Component Owl" tab:
-
+
Displaying Your Extension in VS About Box
If you want information about your extension to be visible in Visual Studio
splash screen and About Box, implement IVsInstalledProduct
@@ -1159,15 +1159,15 @@ public sealed class SampleVsPackage : Package, IVsInstalledProduct
This code causes the component to show up in the list of "Installed Products"
in Visual Studio about box:
-
+
As for the splash screen, Visual Studio 2008 used to display extensions in
its splash screen, but later version do not:
-
-
-
+
+
+
Troubleshooting Package Load Failures
You may encounter this dialog when playing with packages:
-
+
When you click "No", the package will be skipped later when loading packages.
You can re-enable loading all packages by running
devenv.exe /ResetSkipPkgs
@@ -1209,11 +1209,11 @@ PLKs removed), so we won't discuss this topic in more depth
Update Control Already Installed in Toolbox
Suppose we have already integrated SampleControl version 3.3.0.0 in the
Visual Sudio Toolbox:
-
+
We would like to update this control to version 3.4.0.0.
First of all, we update assembly information of the SampleControl
project:
-
+
If we "deploy" (copy) SampleControl.dll to the folder with
SampleVsPackage.dll where it is registered, the SampleControl will no longer be
visible in Toolbox, because the control in Toolbox should still be 3.3.0.0 and
@@ -1232,9 +1232,9 @@ public sealed class SampleVsPackage : Package, IVsInstalledProduct
The package need to be re-registered (see section Registering the Package)
which will effectively update just the "Default Items" value in the Toolbox key:
-
+
This will cause Visual Studio to update your control in the Toolbox:
-
+
Remove Control from the Toolbox
Now we would like to remove control from the Visual Studio Toolbox. This
step can be done by custom uninstaller.
@@ -1263,7 +1263,7 @@ package project with control from a template.
Select "File - New - Project.." (Control+Shift+N) and
then select the "Windows Forms Toolbox Control" or "WPF
Toolbox Control" template:
-
+
The projects is basically a VSPackage wrapped in VSIX container after
build. The package assembly also contain the control class named
ToolboxControl.
@@ -1286,11 +1286,11 @@ to "Windows Forms Toolbox Control" template to show you all the differences.
the same as in previous chapter.
Project properties differs from VSPackage we have created earlier on the VSIX
tab, where we have the first two check boxes checked:
-
+
Update the Manifest File
Double-click on the source.extension.vsixmanifest file to
open up the VSIX Manifest Designer:
-
+
If you are not sure about some part of the form, please take a look on
section Create VSPackage Project, where the form is described in more
detail.
@@ -1381,13 +1381,13 @@ public sealed class ProvideToolboxControlAttribute : RegistrationAttribute
This code is generated if you create project from template.
The project in Solution Explorer should look like this:
-
+
Adding Controls from Other Projects
What if we would like to use SampleControl.dll as in the VSI
package scenario?
Of course, we can click "Add Content" in the VSIX Manifest designer and
simply add "Toolbox Control" content from other project:
-
+
However, this is possible only if the SampleControl project
itself is a package project!
Lucklily, since the VSIX package is still just a ZIP archive, we can take a
@@ -1403,14 +1403,14 @@ SampleVsixPackage.vsix file. This is our VSIX package.
usually possible
to just double-click on the file and see the VSIX installer.
The installation can fail in the very first step:
-
+
This problem appears if you have invalid manifest file. If this happen, open
source.extension.vsixmanifest and fill in all missing data.
Furthermore, you can check if the XML is valid according to
VSIX Extension
Schema.
Now we are able to rebuild and run the VSIX installer again:
-
+
Make the VSIX Package Compatible with Visual Studio 2012/2013
To make our VSIX package working with Visual Studio 2012 and newer, we need
to manually update the manifest file. Select the
@@ -1459,7 +1459,7 @@ VisualStudio element with higher version and all the editions (they are
relevant for VS 2012 and 2013 as its own template also generates these).
The VSIX installer will show Visual Studio 2012 options as
well after this update (if installed, of course):
-
+
Please note that Visual Studio 2012/2013 also works with 2.0 version of the
schema, so if you create VSIX package in Visual Studio 2012/2013, it won't be
compatible with 2010. The solution is hence to use 1.0 version of the schema
@@ -1469,7 +1469,7 @@ really fast with VSIX.
Regrettably, the control won't show up in Visual Studio 2012/2013 Toolbox in its
default configuration. You need to enable loading-per user extensions (this
option is enabled by default in Visual Studio 2010):
-
+
Signing the VSIX Package
Unlike older VSI package, there is no nag screen when the package is not
signed. Instead, a label appears informing user that the package is not
@@ -1535,7 +1535,7 @@ internal class Program
When the file is signed, VSIX Installer shows label "Digital Signature:
<Author Name>" on the first page:
-
+
Dissecting the VSIX Package
If you look on the project references, you can see reference to
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Immutable.10. This reference points to
@@ -1553,10 +1553,10 @@ classes from System.IO.Packaging.
Update Toolbox Control via VSIX Package
If you made changes to your control and want to re-install the package, an
error message appear:
-
+
In order to provide an update, you need to increment version number in the
VSIX manifest:
-
+
You can also increment version number in the Package class attribute, but
this is not necessary for the VSIX to perform update:
@@ -1577,7 +1577,7 @@ Guids.cs: GuidList.guidSampleVsixPackagePkgString): (Tools - Extension Manager...). In Visual Studio
2012/2013, the corresponding dialog is called Extensions and Updates
(Tools - Extensions and Updates...).
-
+
Quiet Mode
Both installation and uninstallation can be performed in quiet mode by using /quiet parameter. This will suppress
user interface of the installer, which is handy when you want to automate
@@ -1619,7 +1619,7 @@ under "bin\Release" subfolders and batch files (.CMD extension) are provided
where appropriate.
The Toolbox should contain a new tab called
"ComponentOwl" containing all the installed component
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
Right-click on empty area of the Toolbox window and select
"Choose Items...":
-
+
In the "Choose Toolbox Items" dialog, select
the ".NET Framework Components" tab. If the comonent
@@ -87,13 +87,13 @@
it, make sure the newest version is checked (e.g. 2.5.2.0 instead of
1.0.0.0) and click "OK":
-
+
If you need other than installed version (e.g. DLL to match for
specific .NET Framework version) click on the
"Browse..." button:
-
+
Browse for the betterlistview.dll file containing the
component.
@@ -114,26 +114,26 @@
specific .NET version, choose the file from ".NET Framework
Specific" folder:
-
+
Make sure the check box next to
"BetterListView" is checked and click
"OK":
-
+
Now the component should appear in your Toolbox:
-
+
Select the component and place it on designer surface:
-
+
Now you can design Better ListView the same way as any other
control:
-
+
@@ -273,30 +273,30 @@ Dim hitTestInfo As BetterListViewHitTestInfo = listView.HitTest(New Point(0, 0))
Better ListView
Better Thumbnail Browser
Better SplitButton
Better ListView Express
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Better ListView
Better Thumbnail Browser
Better SplitButton
Better ListView Express
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