Here is an example of a status bar that shows the coordinate location of a mouse inside a drawing board of a paint program:

A status bar is a control container that is usually made of sections. The sections of a status bar are called panels. The roles of the panels are left to the programmer.

1. Start Microsoft Visual Studio
2. To create a new application, on the main menu, click File -> New Project...
3. In the middle list,click Windows Forms Application
4. Change the Name to Notice1 and click OK
5. From the Dialogs section of the Toolbox, click the OpenFileDialog button and click the form
6. In the Properties window, click (Name) and type dlgFileOpen
   
7. From the Menus & Toolbars section of the Toolbox, click the MenuStrip button and click the form
8. In the Properties window, change its (Name) to mnuMain
9. Under the form, right-click the menu strip and click Insert Standard Items
10. Under the form, click mnuMain. In the Properties window, click Items and click its browse button
11. Change the names of the items as follows:
    
    

    Top Menu Item		DropDownItems
    Old Name	New Name	Old Name	New Name
    fileToolStripMenuItem	mnuFile
    		newToolStripMenuItem	mnuFileNew
    		openToolStripMenuItem	mnuFileOpen
    			Separator
    		saveToolStripMenuItem	mnuFileSave
    		saveAsToolStripMenuItem	mnuFileSaveAs
    			Separator
    		printToolStripMenuItem	mnuFilePrint
    		printPreviewToolStripMenuItem	mnuFilePrintPreview
    			Separator
    		exitToolStripMenuItem	mnuFileExit
    editToolStripMenuItem	mnuEdit
    		undoToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditUndo
    		redoToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditRedo
    			Separator
    		cutToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditCut
    		copyToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditCopy
    		pasteToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditPaste
    			Separator
    		selectAllToolStripMenuItem	mnuEditSelectAll
    toolsToolStripMenuItem	mnuTools
    		customizeToolStripMenuItem	mnuToolsCustomize
    		optionsToolStripMenuItem	mnuToolsOptions
    helpToolStripMenuItem	mnuHelp
    		contentsToolStripMenuItem	mnuHelpContents
    		indexToolStripMenuItem	mnuHelpIndex
    		searchToolStripMenuItem	mnuHelpSearch
    			Separator
    		aboutToolStripMenuItem	mnuHelpAbout

12. Click OK and OK
13. From the Menus & Toolbars section of the Toolbox, click ToolStrip and click the form
14. While the tool strip is still selected, in the Properties window, change its Name to tbrStandard
 
15. On the form, right-click the tool strip and click Insert Standard Items
16. Under the form, click tbrStandard. Under the Properties window, click Edit Items
17. Change the names of the items as follows:
     
    

    Old Name	New Name
    newToolStripButton	tbrStandardNew
    openToolStripButton	tbrStandardOpen
    saveToolStripButton	tbrStandardSave
    printToolStripButton	tbrStandardPrint
    Separator
    cutToolStripButton	tbrStandardCut
    copyToolStripButton	tbrStandardCopy
    pasteToolStripButton	tbrStandardPaste
    Separator
    helpToolStripButton	tbrStandardHelp

You can create a status bar visually or programmatically. To support status bars, the .NET Framework provides a class named StatusStrip. The StatusStrip class is derived from the ToolStrip class, from which it gets its primary functionality.

The previous versions of the .NET Framework, namely 1.0, included a class named StatusBar used to create a status bar. That class is still available and you can use it if you want. In our lessons, unless specified otherwise, we will use the StatusStrip class or the StatusStrip object from the Toolbox.

To assist you with visually creating a status bar, the Toolbox provides a StatusStrip button in its Menus & Toolbars section. You can click it and click a form. To programmatically create a status bar, declare a variable of type StatusStrip and add it to the Controls collection of the form. Here is an example:

#include <windows.h>

#using <System.dll>
#using <System.Windows.Forms.dll>

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;

public ref class CExercise : public Form
{
private:
    StatusStrip ^ statusbar;

public:
    CExercise()
    {
	InitializeComponent();
    }

private:
    void InitializeComponent()
    {
        statusbar = gcnew StatusStrip;

        Controls->Add(statusbar);
        
        Text = "Exercise";
        StartPosition = FormStartPosition::CenterScreen;
    }
};

int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,
		     HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
		     LPSTR lpCmdLine,
		     int nCmdShow)
{
    Application::Run(gcnew CExercise());

    return 0;
}

This would produce:

If you have a good reason to do so, you can add more than one status bar to a form.