Visual Basic Tutorial (Lesson 1)

Hopefully you will learn this during lesson 1. :

About the Development Environment
The project explorer windows
Running a form
Making your first *.exe
Understanding the tool bar
Introducing Source code
Command Button properties
Explanations of global modules
Opening an existing Visual Basic project.
Explore the forms and the source code behind the an existing project in design mode
Recognise and understand the function of the main component of the Visual Basic
environment eg. toolbar's , toolboxes , project window, properties window and most importantly
the source code window.
Saving your project to a file.
Button Properties.













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Learning the ins and outs of the Development Environment before you learn visual basic is
somewhat like learning for a test you must know where all the functions belong and what their
purpose is. First we will start with labelling the development environment.
The Development Environment



The above diagram shows the development environment with all the important points labeled.
Many of Visual basic functions work similar to Microsoft word e.g. theTool Bar and the tool
box is similar to other products on the market which work off a single click then drag the width
of the object required. The Tool Box contains the control you placed on the form window. All of
the controls that appear on the Tool Box controls on the above picture never run out of controls
as soon as you place one on the form another awaits you on the Tool Box ready to be placed as
needed.
The Project explorer window gives you a tree-structured view of all the files inserted into the
application. You can expand these and collapse branches of the views to get more or less detail
(Project explorer). The project explorer window displays forms, modules or other separators
which are supported by the visual basic like classs and Advanced Modules. If you want to select
The project explorer window
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a form on its own simply double click on the project explorer window for a more detailed look.
And it will display it where the Default form is located.

Properties Window

Some programmers prefer the Categorisized view of the properties window. By defaulting, the
properties window displays its properties alphabetically (with the exception of the name value)
when you click on the categorized button the window changes to left picture.
When we start Visual Basic, we are provided with a VB project.A VB project is a collection of
the following modules and files.
The Default Layout
The global module( that contains declaration and procedures)
The form module(that contains the graphic elements of the VB application along with
the instruction )
Thegeneral module (that generally contains general-purpose instructions not pertaining
to anything graphic on-screen)
Theclass module(that contains the defining characteristics of a class, including its
properties and methods)
Theresource files(that allows you to collect all of the texts and bitmaps for an
application in one place)
On start up, Visual Basic will displays the following windows :
The Blank Form window
The Project window
The Properties window
It also includes a Toolbox that consists of all the controls essential for developing a VB
Application. Controls are tools such as boxes, buttons, labels and other objects draw on a form to
get input or display output. They also add visual appeal.

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Understanding the tool box.
You may have noticed that when you
click on different controls the Properties
Window changes slightly this is due to
different controls having different
functions. Therefore more options are
needed for example if you had a picture
then you want to show an image. But if
you wanted to open a internet connection
you would have to fill in the remote host
and other such settings. When you use the
command ( ) you will find that a new
set of properties come up the following
will provide a description and a property.
Microsoft have included some freebies with visual basic to show its capabilities and functions.
Dismantling or modifying these sample projects is a good way to understand what is happening
at runtime. These files can be located at your default directory /SAMPLES/
Opening an existing Visual Basic project.
To Open these projects choose 'Open Project' from the 'File' menu. Then Double click on the
samples folder to open the directory then Double click on any project to load it.
From looking at the examples it time to make your own application. Choose 'New Project' from
the 'File' menu. Use the blank form1 to design a simple interface for an estate agents database,
have some textboxes for names and other details. Insert some controls and make it look
professional. Textboxes can be used to store there name and other details, make sure you put a
picture box in for a picture of the house.
Opening a new visual basic file & Inserting Source code.
Now insert the following source code for your application.
Private Sub Form_Load()
Picture1.Picture =LoadPicture("C:\Program Files\VB\Graphics\Icons\Misc\MISC42.ICO")
End Sub


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Once an application is loaded it can be run by click on the icon from the toolbar, to pause
press and to terminate use .
Running and viewing the project in detail.
Once a project is loaded, the name of the form(s) that it contains is displayed in the project
window. To view a form in design mode, select the form required by clicking with the mouse to
highlight its name, then clicking on the view form button.


In this example the project has been loaded and the maillist.frm has been selected for viewing.
This Ms Mail example project useds 6 forms and 1 modules.
In Design mode, when the form is viewed, the code attached to any screen object may be
inspected by double clicking on that object. The screen shots below show the interface of the Ms
Mail example (.../samples/Comtool/VBMail/MaiLLST.FRM) to view the code for this form
select from the project window item.
Private Sub SetupOptionForm(BasePic As Control)
BasePic.Top =0
BasePic.Left =0
BasePic.Visible =True
BasePic.enabled =True
OKBt.Top =BasePic.Height +120
Me.width =BasePic.Width +120
Me.Heigh =OkBt.Top +OkBt.Height +495
End Sub


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To make an excutable from a project choose 'MakeMake project.exe from the 'File' menu. Then
click once on the Make project.exe choose a default location to store your executable, you can
also change some advanced options by clicking on the Options.. tag before saving your exe
Making your first *.exe!?



The above image will be displayed in the comment's value type some comments company name
name etc... The Title tag represents the caption you will see if you press Control +Alt +Del.
And the icon is the icon that will be available on the execute icon. As you can see it is quite
simple to understand. All the comments, data and name appear when you click on the compiled
(execute) exe and click properties.
Save your work to disk. Use the Windows Explorer or any desktop windows to check that all
files have been saved. There should be one Visual Basic Project (.VBP) file and separate Form
(.FRM) and Module (.BAS) files for each form and module used in the current project.
Saving your visual basic project.
, Command Button & labels properties
Button Properties for reference
Property Description
Name The name of the object so you can call it at runtime
BackColor
This specifies the command button's background color. Click the BackColor's
palette down arrow to see a list of common Windows control colours, you must
change this to the style property from 0 - standard to 1 - graphical
Cancel
Determines whether the command button gets a Click event if the user presses
escape
Caption Holds the text that appears on the command button.
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Default
Determins if the command button responds to an enter keypress even if another
control has the focus
Enable
Determines whether the command button is active. Often, you'll change the
enable property at runtime with code to prevent the user pressing the button
Font
Produces a Font dialog box in which you can set the caption's font name , style
and size.
Height Positions the height of the object - can be used for down
Left Positions the left control - can be used for right
MousePointer If selected to an icon can change the picture of the mouse pointer over that object
Picture
Hold's the name of an icon graphic image so that it appears as a picture instead of
a Button for this option to work the graphical tag must be set to 1
Style
This determins if the Command Button appears as a standard windows dialog
box or a graphical image
Tab index Specifies the order of the command button in tab order
Tab Stop
Whether the object can be tabbed to ( this can be used in labels which have no
other function )
Tool Tip Text
If the mouse is held over the object a brief description can be displayed (for
example hold your mouse over one of the above pictures to see this happening
Visible If you want the user to see the button/label select true other wise just press false
Width Show the width of the object

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