Can StatusStrip automatically change its height depending on its items' size?

Question

I've got a statusstrip with a number of items. One of them is a ToolStripStatusLabel with Spring = True. When the text of the label is too long, one can't see it.

Is it possible to make the statusstrip become higher and show whole text in multiline?

Answer 1

This is an interesting problem....I tried a couple of things but no success...basicall the ToolStripStatusLabel is very limited in capability.

I ended up trying a hack that gives the result you want but am not sure even I would recommend this unless of course this is absolutely necessary...

Here's what I have got...

In the properties of your StatusStrip set AutoSize = false, this is to allow the StatusStrip to be resized to accommodate multiple lines. I am assuming statusStrip called ststusStrip1 containing label called toolStripStatusLabel1.

At form Level declare a variable of TextBox type:

  TextBox txtDummy = new TextBox();

At Form Load set some of its properties:

  txtDummy.Multiline = true;
  txtDummy.WordWrap = true;
  txtDummy.Font = toolStripStatusLabel1.Font;//Same font as Label

Handle the paint event of the toolStripStatusLabel1

 private void toolStripStatusLabel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
 {        

    String textToPaint = toolStripStatusLabel1.Tag.ToString(); //We take the string to print from Tag
    SizeF stringSize = e.Graphics.MeasureString(textToPaint, toolStripStatusLabel1.Font);
    if (stringSize.Width > toolStripStatusLabel1.Width)//If the size is large we need to find out how many lines it will take
    {
        //We use a textBox to find out the number of lines this text should be broken into
        txtDummy.Width = toolStripStatusLabel1.Width - 10;
        txtDummy.Text = textToPaint;
        int linesRequired = txtDummy.GetLineFromCharIndex(textToPaint.Length - 1) + 1;
        statusStrip1.Height =((int)stringSize.Height * linesRequired) + 5;
        toolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "";
        e.Graphics.DrawString(textToPaint, toolStripStatusLabel1.Font, new SolidBrush( toolStripStatusLabel1.ForeColor), new RectangleF( new PointF(0, 0), new SizeF(toolStripStatusLabel1.Width, toolStripStatusLabel1.Height)));
    }
    else
    {
        toolStripStatusLabel1.Text = textToPaint;
    }
} 

IMP: Do not assign the text property of your label instead put it in Tag we would use it from Tag

 toolStripStatusLabel1.Tag = "My very long String";