How do I make VS Designer stop resizing my forms?

[Frnak McKenney]

Environment:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4 Build 2195
Microsoft Visual C# .NET 2003
Microsoft Development Environment 2003 Version 7.1.3088
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Version 1.1.4322

Background:

I'm building a single .EXE file with a number of classes, the Forms
parts of which looks like this:

PgtForm Your basic Form
+---frmStartUp Startup window, menu, etc.
+---PgtDbEditForm Form with buttons for database edits
+---frmDbEdit1 Edit screen 1
+---frmDbEdit2 Edit screen 2
+---...etc.

The subsidiary forms are "nested" into the Client Area of
'frmStartUp' and appear and disappear as required.

The base form, which I don't use directly, was designed using
Arial-8-Bold, and the other Forms all inherit this. I've spent a
_lot_ of hours tweaking screen layouts, and they generally look
acceptable (I confess I'm not an artist <grin>).

I installed my application on my customer's laptop, and it looked
odd -- too much empty space between the controls and the window
border on the right side and the bottom. Why? Well, I put it down
to the laptop's being set at a resolution something like 1280x800,
and tried to come up with some way of compensating for the
"ooog-liness".

Turns out that there was another factor: I had _my_ desktop set up
to use 120dpi Large Fonts (under the [Advanced] button on Desktop
Properties). The customer's laptop is using the 96dpi Small Fonts.

Oooo-kay. I set my Desktop back to using Small Fonts and have been
going slowly crazy ever since tring to make my screns look neat. My
biggest single problem at this point is that the VS Designer keeps
altering my Form sizes on me every time I rebuild my project.

Here's a specific sequense:

- I open frmStartUp in [Design] mode.
- I set the form size to 800,640.
- This takes effect.
- I move a couple of controls so they look balanced.
- I rebuild the project.

As soon as the rebuild ends, I look at the frmStartUp Properties,
and my 800x640 Form has magically been resized to 687x528! (And
it's repeatable) Ack! Phllbllbbbt!

Is there a SecretSwitch(tm) somewhere in the innards of Visual
Studio that tells the Designer it can resize forms any time it
wants to? If so, I'd _really_ like to turn it OFF!

(Okay. It's late. End Rant, begin Plea For Assistance)

Has anyone seen this before?

Is there some sort of Designer rule that every form size always be
of the form (k + i * Font-Em-Size) or something equally obscure?

Can anyone offer any suggestions on what I could do that might yield
more clues?
Any assistance will be most humbly appreciated.
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / [phone]
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut minds pring dawt cahm (y'all)
--
The man of science is nothing if not a poet gone wrong.
-- George Meredith, English novelist/poet
--