<p>Using .NET 2.0 with WinForms, I'd like to create a custom, multi-columned menu (similiar to the word 2007 look&amp;feel, but without the ribbon).</p>

<p>My approach was creating a control, and using a left/right docked toolstrip, I have constructed a similar look&amp;feel of a menu. However, there are a few shortcomings of this solution, such as</p>

<ul>
<li>the control can only be placed, and displayed within the form; </li>
<li>if the form is too small, some area of the control won't be displayed;</li>
<li>the control also have to be manually shown/hidden.</li>
</ul>

<p>Thus, I'm looking for a way to display this control outside of the boundaries of the application. Creating a new form would result in title-bar deactivating on display, so that's also out. Alternatively, any other approach to create a customized menu would be very welcomed.</p>

<p>Edit: I don't want to use any commercial products for this; and since it's about a simple menu customization, it's not related to Microsoft's ribbon "research" in any way.</p>

[{'answer_id': 71243, 'author': 'Gishu', 'author_id': 1695, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1695', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<ul>\n<li>unless you are in the business of providing .net components, you should be looking to buy it off the shelf. Its a lot of work getting such a control right - There are already vendors providing this kind of UI. e.g. <a href="http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/RibbonWinForms/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ComponentOne</a></li>\n<li>if you are trying to build this component as a product, you should look at the link below. Apparently Microsoft has a \'royalty-free\' license around the Office UI to protect their R&amp;D investments. As of now you need to tell them that you are using something similar to the Office UI. <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa973809.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">More of that here</a></li>\n</ul>\n'}, {'answer_id': 89510, 'author': 'Hans Passant', 'author_id': 17034, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/17034', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': True, 'text': "<p>The MenuStrip class has a Renderer property.  You can assign your own ToolStripRenderer derived class to customize the painting.  It's a fair amount of work.</p>\n"}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/71149', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/9440/']