Active controls and selected controls

In design mode, all controls have an active state and a selected state. When a control is active, it means you are working with the contents of the control; when a control is selected, it means you are working with the control itself.

Most controls are automatically selected when you put them on the form . In design mode, sizing handles appear around the control border when the control is selected. If you deselect the control, you can select it again by clicking the control.

Clicking a control that is selected puts the control in the active state. In this state, you can directly edit the control Caption or Value property, depending on the control.

In both the selected and the active state, you can use DEL, CTRL+X, and CTRL+C for the Delete, Cut, and Copy commands, respectively. In the selected state, these commands are available on the shortcut menu and affect the control itself. In the active state, these commands affect whatever text is selected inside the control; if no text is selected, these commands have no effect. These commands are not available on the shortcut menu for active controls.