Use a toolstrip. Set it's dock to none, it's grip style to hidden, and it's render mode to system. Change it's background color to match your form, or to transparent. Place it on your form wherever you like, and add buttons. Use images and / or text on the buttons. They will have no border, and will pop up and look glassy when you mouse over them. Works great with images.
You can download one of my projects
here to see it, and how to do it.
hope this helps... and if this is your answer, please hit the green button.
- Pete