ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table not working in ContextMenuStrip

Question

I want to shown a context menu where the menu items are images that are laid out in a grid. However, when I set LayoutStyle to ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table in the ToolStripDropDown of a menu, it will only give a grid layout of the menu items if a new ToolStripDropDown object is created.

My problem is that I can create and assign a new ToolStripDropDown for a sub-menu, but not for ContextMenuStrip, because it is the ToolStripDropDown.

The following code demonstrates the problem. It will display a context menu that contains colours swatch images and also has two sub-menus with the same images. All three menus have the LayoutStyle property set to ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table, but only one will actually show as a grid.

private void FillDropDown(ToolStripDropDown drop_down)
{
    // Set the drop down to a 2 column table layout
    drop_down.LayoutStyle = ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table;
    TableLayoutSettings table_layout_settings = (TableLayoutSettings)drop_down.LayoutSettings;
    table_layout_settings.ColumnCount = 2;

    // Fill the menu with some colour swatches
    Color[] colours = { Color.Red, Color.Orange, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Blue, Color.Purple };
    foreach (Color colour in colours) {
        ToolStripMenuItem item = new ToolStripMenuItem();
        Bitmap swatch = new Bitmap(64, 64);
        using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(swatch))
        using (SolidBrush b = new SolidBrush(colour)) {
            g.FillRectangle(b, 0, 0, 64, 64);
        }
        item.Image = swatch;
        item.DisplayStyle = ToolStripItemDisplayStyle.Image;
        item.Margin = new Padding(2, 2, 2, 2);
        drop_down.Items.Add(item);
    }
}

private void ShowColorMenu(Point screen_location)
{
    ContextMenuStrip context_menu = new ContextMenuStrip();

    // The root context menu will not layout as a grid
    FillDropDown(context_menu);

    // This sub-menu will not layout as a grid
    ToolStripMenuItem sub_menu = new ToolStripMenuItem("Sub-menu");
    FillDropDown(sub_menu.DropDown);
    context_menu.Items.Add(sub_menu);

    // A sub-menu will layout as a grid if we create a new ToolStripDropDown for it
    ToolStripMenuItem grid_sub_menu = new ToolStripMenuItem("Grid Sub-menu");
    ToolStripDropDown new_drop_down = new ToolStripDropDown();
    FillDropDown(new_drop_down);
    grid_sub_menu.DropDown = new_drop_down;
    context_menu.Items.Add(grid_sub_menu);

    context_menu.Show(screen_location);
}

On my machine the result appears as follows:

I would like to have a grid of images in the root of the context menu. It would also be nice to understand why it is behaving like this. I have looked through the .NET reference source, but that didn't help on this occasion.

Answer 1

The ContextMenuStrip cannot show its ToolStripMenuItems in a Table layout, because of a limitation in Menu presentation/layout and you also cannot cast ContextMenuStrip to ToolStripDropDown (or the other way around; it's a wrapper around ToolStripDropDownMenu, it cannot be transformed into its indirect ancestor: it will retain its specific functionality (e.g., you can see both a TextBox and a ListBox as Control, but it doesn't mean that, now, setting the Text of a ListBox will actually show a text somewhere, just because the Text property belongs to the Control class).

But you can directly use and show a ToolStripDropDown the same way as a ContextMenuStrip. The ToolStripDropDown's LayoutSettings can be cast directly to TableLayoutSettings and a LayoutStyle of type ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table is fully supported.

---

In the example, a ToolStripDropDown object, containing ToolStripMenuItems arranged in a Table layout, is used as a ContextMenuStrip to select a colored Image to be applied to a PictureBox Control, while the Color name is shown in a Label control.

The dropdown menu is created when the Form is initialized, it's shown clicking the Mouse right Button inside the Form's ClientArea and disposed of when the Form closes:

_{Note1: here, I'm using a Lambda to subscribe to the ToolStripDropDown.ItemClicked event. It's however preferable, with this type of control, to use a method delegate instead.}

_{Note2: the ToolStripDropDown is disposed of calling contextColorMenu.Dispose();. If the container Form is opened and closed frequently, it may be better to explicitly dispose of the ToolStripMenuItems Images.}

using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public partial class SomeForm : Form
{
    private ToolStripDropDown contextColorMenu = null;

    public SomeForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        contextColorMenu = new ToolStripDropDown();
        contextColorMenu.ItemClicked += (o, a) => {
            // Assign the selected Bitmap to a PitureBox.Image
            picColor.Image = a.ClickedItem.Image;
            // Show the Color description in a Label
            lblColor.Text = ((Color)a.ClickedItem.Tag).ToString();
        };
        FillDropDown(contextColorMenu);
    }
    
    private void ShowColorMenu(Point location) => contextColorMenu.Show(location);

    private void FillDropDown(ToolStripDropDown dropDown)
    {
        dropDown.LayoutStyle = ToolStripLayoutStyle.Table;
        (dropDown.LayoutSettings as TableLayoutSettings).ColumnCount = 2;
        (dropDown.LayoutSettings as TableLayoutSettings).GrowStyle = TableLayoutPanelGrowStyle.AddRows;

        Color[] colors = { Color.Red, Color.Orange, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Blue, Color.Purple };

        foreach (Color color in colors) {
            var swatch = new Bitmap(64, 64);
            using (var g = Graphics.FromImage(swatch)) {
                g.Clear(color);
            }
            var item = new ToolStripMenuItem() {
                DisplayStyle = ToolStripItemDisplayStyle.Image,
                Image = swatch,
                Tag = color,
                Margin = new Padding(2),
                Padding = new Padding(2, 1, 2, 1)  // Fine tune the Items' Cell border
            };
            dropDown.Items.Add(item);
        }
    }

    protected override void OnMouseDown(MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnMouseDown(e);
        if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Right) {
            ShowColorMenu(MousePosition);
        }
    }

    protected override void OnFormClosed(FormClosedEventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnFormClosed(e);
        contextColorMenu?.Dispose();
    }
}