Introduction

Introduction

This website is for programmers and would-be programmers who want to learn visual basic as quickly as
possible, You will be quickly creating applications by following the simple examples. All the applications
featured are fully functional windows applications with all the usual user-interface controls such as command
buttons, labels and textboxes.
As long as you are familiar with Windows 95, you can easily create applications with Visual Basic. You don't
have to be a windows expert, but you should feel comfortable working with menus, the mouse and the windows
interface. If you've opened, closed and re-sized windows you should have the ability to make your own Visual
Basic applications in no time at all.
What is a programming language ?!
A Computer cannot understand any persons spoken language. A spoken language such as English , French, is
simply too general and ambiguous for computers to understand. Therefore, we must adapt to the machine and
learn the computer language so that the computer can understand. This is where visual basic comes into it -
when you type visual basic source code into the computer, the computer processes these statements into Visual
Basic language. The statements in visual basic, however, do not have multiple meanings within the same
context.
This sounds great what else will I need!?
You will require a Windows 95-compatible computer with at least Windows 95 or Windows NT installed and
must importantly Visual Basic!. At the momenet there is no freeware version of Visual basic available :-(

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.

The Development Environment

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 above diagram shows the development environment with all the important points labelled. Many of Visual
basic functions work similar to Microsoft word eg the Tool 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 runs 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
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
class'es and Advanced Modules. If you want to select 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.
The Default Layout
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 global module( that contains declaration and procedures)
• The form module(that contains the graphic elements of the VB application along with
the instruction )
 • The general module (that generally contains general-purpose instructions not pertaining to
anything graphic on-screen)
• The class module(that contains the defining characteristics of a class, including its
properties and methods)
• The resource 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.
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.

Opening an existing Visual Basic project.

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/
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.
Opening a new visual basic file & Inserting Source code.
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.
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
Running and viewing the project in detail.

Once an application is loaded it can be run by click on the icon from the toolbar, to pause press and to

terminate use .
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

Making your first *.exe!?

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
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.
Saving your visual basic project.
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.
Button Properties for reference

, Command Button & labels properties

Property Description
Name The name of the object so you can call it at runtime
This specifies the command button's background color. Click the BackColor's palette down arrow
BackColor 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.
Determins if the command button responds to an enter keypress even if another control has the
Default
focus
Determines whether the command button is active. Often, you'll change the enable property at
Enable
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
Hold's the name of an icon graphic image so that it appears as a picture instead of a Button for
Picture
this option to work the graphical tag must be set to 1
This determins if the Command Button appears as a standard windows dialog box or a graphical
Style
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 )
If the mouse is held over the object a brief description can be displayed (for example hold your
Tool Tip Text
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

http://www.devdos.com/vb/quiz.shtml

Lesson 1 quiz

For this quiz on lesson 1 Visual Basic tutorial please enter the best fit answers to these questions all the answers
are available from Lesson 1 so if you have just joined please click here
Anything you do not know just leave blank ,none of this information is being recorded (except the
counter) so if you fail no one will know!
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No Name

Your Name * Not required

1. What is the function of this button .

A Run the project

B View Form

C Height of window

D View the source code

2. What is the name of the bar where you would see a Categorized view or a Alphabetic View .

A Project Properties Window

B Tool Bar

C Tool Box window

D Project explorer

3. What is the missing label of the brown axis .

A OS file name

B Name of object

C Visual Basic Files

D Tree View

4. What is this button used for .

A Stopping other programs taking inputs

B Terminating the application

C Drawing 3d objects

D Check the application

5. Which one of these is not a valid add -in.

A global module

B resource files

C general module

D modest module
6. What is tool tip text.

A Tool tip text is a tip of the day

B Tool tip text does not exist

 C Tool tip text is the same as the caption

D Tool tip text is shown when the mouse is held over a object for a period of time
7. What is the meaning of *.VBP .

A Volly Ball Practice

B Visi - ble - property

C Visual Basic Project

D Visual Binary Protocol

8. What is the purpose of the name function in all controls.

A So things can be sorted by type

B So they can be called at runtime

C The name functions does not exist

D Not too sure

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