Is MDI Form focused?

Question

I've had so much luck developing my application... until now.
My application's main form is a MDI parent, and I didn't think of adding any MDI children in my tests until tonight.
To my surprise, the MDI parent seems to never "get focus" now. The Focus event and the OnFocus method are never called! I mean... it appears focused but none of the in-code focusing events/methods work. Instead a MDI child reports the focus.

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

This is by design. A form acts as a container for other windows, controls. The controls get the focus, the user interacts with, say, a button or text box. Only when the form doesn't have any controls will it get the focus, only because there's nothing else that can get it. The same thing will happen with the MDI child form as soon as you put a control on it. Or with a Panel or UserControl, other container control types.

A form has the Activate and Deactivate events. ActiveForm tells you with one is currently active. Note the distinction between active and focused.