I would like to create a base windows form with functionalities that all application forms needed and then inherits from it. This is available from VB or C# (in design mode) but I am not able to figure out how to do it in Visual Cobol so I can use the inherited form in design mode. Can someone help? Thanks!

Visual COBOL does not currently have a project template for Inherited Form like C# and VB do but you can inherit from an existing form by manually changing the Inherits clause on the class-id of both the form.cbl and the form.designer.cbl.

Example:
class-id testinherit.Form2 is partial
                 inherits type System.Windows.Forms.Form.

change to:

class-id testinherit.Form2 is partial
                 inherits type testinherit.Form1.

You can then use the designer to edit this form.