c# - Winforms - SelectAll() not working on inner Winforms textbox consistently

Question

I have a WinForm popping up within a WinForm. If I close the inner Winform and reopen it, the text in the textbox doesn't highlight. However if I close both WinForms and reopen the first and then the inner WinForm, the text in the textbox will highlight.

How can I get the inner WinForm text to highlight every time?

I have tried the 2 ways I know of / most common ways of highlighting the text but they seem to only work the first time around.

Any and all help/direction is appreciated.

The inner winforms is being called from a .ShowDialog(); in the outer Winforms.

portalTitleEntryForm.ShowDialog();

Here is my code of the inner Winform and what I have tried:

public partial class PortalTitleEntryForm : Form
    {
        public string portalEntryTitle;
        public string dialogResult;

        public PortalTitleEntryForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            titleTextBox.TabIndex = 0;
            continueButton.TabIndex = 1;
            cancelButton.TabIndex = 2;

            this.CancelButton = cancelButton;
            this.AcceptButton = continueButton;

            titleTextBox.Focus();
            if (portalEntryTitle != null || !portalEntryTitle.Equals(""))
            {
                titleTextBox.Focus();
                titleTextBox.Text = portalEntryTitle;
                /*titleTextBox.SelectionStart = 0; // doesn't work the second time
                titleTextBox.SelectionLength = titleTextBox.Text.Length;*/ // doesn't work the second time
                titleTextBox.SelectAll();  // doesn't work the second time
                bool focusStatus = titleTextBox.Focused; // bool equals false the second
                //titleTextBox.Focus(); // doesn't work the second time around

            }

    private void continueButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            if (!titleTextBox.Text.Equals(""))
            {
                portalEntryTitle = titleTextBox.Text;
                dialogResult = DialogResult.OK.ToString();
                continueButton.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
                Close();
                return;
            }
            else if (titleTextBox.Text.Equals(""))
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Please give your entry a title.", "M3dida", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information);
            }
            
        }
    private void cancelButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            dialogResult = DialogResult.Cancel.ToString();
            Debug.WriteLine("Cancel button was clicked");
            Close();
            return;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Form loads only once, unless it is destroyed.

You might want to handle Form.Activated event and invoke titleTextBox.Focus() in the handler.