The Button control (System.Windows.Forms.Button) is usually wont to execute commands once it’s clicked. once a button is clicked, you specify codes that may be used. Buttons are typically used to confirm or cancel an action, to perform different actions, and to open some more dialogs. The Button control has several properties that you can use. The table below enumerates them.

Property Description
AutoEllipsis Specifies whether to append dots (…) when the   text in the button is too long and can’t fit the button.
AutoSize Specifies whether the button will automatically resize to fit its content.
FlatStyle Determines the style of the button. Popup makes the button flat, and when you hover on the button, the button will pop out. Flat makes the button flat and when you move point your mouse inside the button, the background color of the button changes.
Enabled If set to false, the button cannot be clicked or receive focus.
Image An optional image that you can place inside the control.
ImageAlign The alignment of the image in the button.
Text The caption inside the button.
Visible Tells whether the button is visible or not.

Figure 1 – Button Properties

A button is still useless by just editing its properties. It needs to react to events to do some work. The following are the most common events available for the Button control.

Event Description
Click Occurs when you click the button.
Enter Occurs when the control becomes the
active control of the form.
Leave Occurs when the control becomes
inactive anymore.
LocationChanged Occurs when the location of the
button is changed.
MouseDown Occurs when the mouse pointer is in the button
and the mouse button is pressed down.
MouseEnter Occurs when the mouse enters the button.
MouseHover Occurs when the mouse stays stationary
in the button for an amount of time.
MouseUp Occurs when you pressed the button and
you let go of the mouse button.
MouseLeave Occurs when the mouse pointer
leaves the button.

You have already seen the Click event which is the default event for a button. Let’s create another application that demonstrates the use of other events. Create a new form and drag a button to the form from the toolbox. It’s not important what text you put for the button. In the properties window, find the Name property and change its value to buttonSample. We will now refer to that button in the code using that name. Our program will demonstrate the  MouseEnter and MouseLeave events. To access these events, the easiest way is to go to the properties window and click the button with the lightning symbol.

First, find MouseEnter and double click it. Visual   Studio will generate an event handler for you for that specified event. Type the highlighted code inside the method.

private void buttonSample_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    buttonSample.Text = "Mouse has entered!";
}

After typing the code, return back to the Properties Window and now choose the   MouseLeave event and double click it to generate an event handler. Again, type the highlighted code inside the event handler method.

private void buttonSample_MouseLeave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    btnSample.Text = "Mouse has left!";
}

Now run the program. Roll over your mouse to the button and notice that the text has changed. Take away the mouse pointer from the button and the text of the button will change again.