Graeme, Personally, I never use a status bar, just because if I want something in the footer, it usually involves more than just text. For example I may want editor controls, images, buttons, and text in the bottom area of the form. See the screenshot below as an example coming from one of my apps:
http://cache.getlazarus.org/images/showcase/linux.business.charity.jpg See the form in back can have a search function, a date range button, and you can remove it by clicking close? You can do whatever you want in the bottom area of a a form if you just reserve it by overriding GetLogicalClientRect and using control alignments. You don't even need a panel, just a trivial piece of code in the form. If you're like me you'll even put that logic in a base form class, make it optional, and use that type of base form anytime you might want a status like area. Oh and if you're concerned about drawing the size grip handle in the bottom right, the Theme API does that for you, or you can even write you own one time reusable code to draw size grip handles.
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