Hello JSW W.,

I will try to answer to your questions in the same order you asked them.

• CustomBinary format has smallest size.
• There is no significant difference in speed between formats.
• To set the format that you want to use you should set the Format property of framework state to the desired format.
• The framework state saves and loads only docking framework state. It doesn't saves the containing controls.
• When you load the layout you should have your docking manager created. You should put the content after the state is loaded.
• If you have nested managers you should have framework state for each manager and save and load them separately. 
• Panel.ID property is for internal use.
• Key is different from ID. You can set Key property and it is string, while ID is generated automatically and it is of type GUID.

I am not sure I understand your last question could you elaborate?

Hello JSW W.,

To be able to load previously saved state all you need is when the panels and documents are created to set uniquely their Key and Text property (only to NDockingPanel and NUIDocument).

To load the saved state you need to call one of the three overloads of the Load methods.

Finally, you should add the hosted controls in the panels or in documents if they are not there already.

Usually, when load a state the panels and documents are already created together with the controls that they contain, and you don't need to add them again.

Regards,

Angel.