Introduction to Visual Studio

and Visual Programming

Chapter 2 of Visual C# How to Program, 6/e

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2.1 Introduction
 Visual Studio is Microsoft’s Integrated Development Environment
(IDE) for creating, running and debugging apps (also called
applications) written in C# and various other .NET programming
languages.
 In this chapter, we overview the Visual Studio Community 2019 IDE,

then show how to create a simple Visual C# app by dragging and

dropping predefined building blocks into place—a technique known as
visual app development.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.2.2 Visual Studio Themes
 VisualStudio supports three themes that specify the IDE’s
color scheme:
 a dark theme (with dark window backgrounds and light text)
 a light theme (with light window backgrounds and dark text) and
 a blue theme (with light window backgrounds and dark text).
 We use the blue theme throughout this book.
 The Before You Begin section after the Preface explains how

to set this option.

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2.2.4 Creating a New Project
A project is a group of related files, such as the Visual C#
code and any images that might make up an app.
 Visual Studio organizes apps into projects and solutions,

which contain one or more projects.

 Multiple-project solutions are used to create large-scale apps.
 You select File > New > Project… to create a new project or
File > Open > Project/Solution… to open an existing one.
 You also can click the corresponding links in the Start

Page’s Start section.

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2.2.5 New Project Dialog and Project Templates
 For the discussions in the next several sections, we’ll create
a new project. Select File > New > Project… to display the
New Project dialog (Fig. 2.3).
 Dialogs are windows that facilitate user–computer

communication.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.2.6 Forms and Controls
 The rectangle in the Design area titled Form1 (called a Form)
represents the main window of the Windows Forms app.
 Each Form is an object of class Form in the .NET Framework Class

Library.
 Apps can have multiple Forms (windows).
 A Label typically contains descriptive text (for example, "Welcome to

Visual C#!"), and a PictureBox displays an image.

 Visual Studio has many preexisting controls and other components you

can use to build and customize your apps.

 Collectively, the Form and controls make up the app’s GUI.

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2.2.6 Forms and Controls
 Each open document’s name is listed on a tab. To view a
document when multiple documents are open, click its tab.
 The active tab (the tab of the currently displayed

document) is highlighted.
 The active tab’s highlight color depends on the Visual Studio

theme—the blue theme uses a yellow highlight and the light

and dark themes use a blue highlight.

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2.3 Menu Bar and Toolbar
 Commands for managing the IDE and for developing, maintaining and
executing apps are contained in menus, which are located on the menu
bar of the IDE (Fig. 2.5).
 The set of menus displayed depends on what you’re currently doing in the IDE.
 Menus contain groups of related commands called menu items that,
when selected, cause the IDE to perform specific actions.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.3 Menu Bar and Toolbar
 You can access many common menu commands from the
toolbar (Fig. 2.7), which contains icons that graphically
represent commands.
 By default, the standard toolbar is displayed when you run

Visual Studio for the first time—it contains icons for the
most commonly used commands, such as opening a file,
saving files and running apps.
 The icons that appear on the standard toolbar may vary, depending
on the version of Visual Studio you’re using.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.4 Navigating the Visual Studio IDE
 The IDE provides windows for accessing project files and customizing
controls. Each can be accessed by selecting its name in the View menu.
 Visual Studio provides an auto-hide space-saving feature.
 When auto-hide is enabled for a window, a tab containing the window’s name
appears along the IDE window’s left, right or bottom edge (Fig. 2.10).
 Clicking the name of an auto-hidden window displays that window (Fig. 2.11).
 Clicking the name again (or clicking outside) hides the window.
 To “pin down” a window (that is, to disable auto-hide and keep the
window open), click the pin icon.
 When auto-hide is enabled, the pin icon is horizontal
 When a window is “pinned down,” the pin icon is vertical

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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2.4.1 Solution Explorer
 The Solution Explorer window (Fig. 2.13) provides access
to all of a solution’s files.
 If it’s not shown in the IDE, select View > Solution

Explorer.
 When you open a new or existing solution, the Solution

Explorer displays the solution’s contents.

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2.4.1 Solution Explorer
 The solution’s startup project (shown in bold in the Solution
Explorer) is the one that runs when you select Debug > Start
Debugging (or press F5) or select Debug > Start Without Debugging
(or press Ctrl + F5 key).
 For a single-project solution, the startup project is the only project.
 When you create an app for the first time, the Solution Explorer

window appears as shown in Fig. 2.13.

 The Visual C# file that corresponds to the Form shown in Fig. 2.4 is

named Form1.cs (selected in Fig. 2.13).

 Visual C# files use the .cs file-name extension, which is short for “C#.”

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.4.2 Toolbox
 To display the Toolbox window, select View > Toolbox.
 Contains the controls used to customize Forms (Fig. 2.15).
 With visual app development, you can “drag and drop” controls onto
the Form and the IDE will write the code that creates the controls for
you.
 The Toolbox groups the prebuilt controls into categories—All

Windows Forms, Common Controls, Containers, Menus & Toolbars,

Data, Components, Printing, Dialogs, Reporting, WPF
Interoperability and General.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.4.3 Properties Window
 If the Properties window is not displayed below the Solution Explorer,
select View > Properties Window to display it.
 The Properties window contains the properties for the currently

selected Form, control or file in the IDE.

 Properties specify information about the Form or control.
 When you select a property, its description is displayed at the bottom

of the Properties window.

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2.4.3 Properties Window
 Fig. 2.16 shows Form1’s Properties window—you can view by
clicking anywhere in the Form1.cs [Design] window.
 The left column lists the Form’s properties
 The right column displays the current value of each property.
 You can sort the properties either
 alphabetically (by clicking the Alphabetical icon) or
 categorically (by clicking the Categorized icon).
 The Properties window is crucial to visual app development.

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© 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
2.5 Help Menu and Context-Sensitive Help
 Microsoft provides extensive help documentation via the Help menu,
which is an excellent way to get information quickly about Visual
Studio, Visual C# and more.
 Visual Studio provides context-sensitive help pertaining to the

“current content” (that is, the items around the location of the mouse
cursor).
 To use context-sensitive help, click an item, then press the F1 key.

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