C#

/* This field will be ignored when serialized--
   unless it's overridden. */
[XmlIgnoreAttribute]
public string Comment;

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace SerialTest
{
  // This is the class that will be serialized. 
  public class Group
  {
    [XmlIgnoreAttribute]
    public System.Windows.Forms.Button myButton;

    // a group name or something
    public string GroupName;

    // a comment of some sort...
    public string Comment;

    public void SerializeObject(string filename)
    {
	// Create an XmlSerializer instance.
	XmlSerializer xSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Group));

	// Writing the file requires a TextWriter.
	TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(filename);

	// Serialize the object and close the TextWriter.
	xSer.Serialize(writer, this);
	writer.Close();
    }
  }
}

Group a = new Group();
a.Comment="A sample comment";
a.GroupName="A sample group name";
a.myButton = this.button1;
a.SerializeObject("c:\\test.xml");

<br />
class MyButton:System.Windows.Forms.Button <br />

Eitsop wrote:

When you say XmlIgnore, do you mean that you have applied the XmlIgnoreAttribute? i.e.

/* This field will be ignored when serialized--
   unless it's overridden. */
[XmlIgnoreAttribute]
public string Comment;