Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- About the Author
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Who Should Read This Book
- What This Book Will Do for You
- Can This Book Really Teach Visual Basic in 24 Hours?
- What You Need
- Files on the Visual Basic Distribution CD-ROM
- Conventions Used in This Book
- Enough! Time Is Ticking!
- Part I: Introducing Visual Basic
- Hour 1. Visual Basic at Work
- Hour 2.Analyzing Visual Basic Programs
- Hour 3.Controls and Properties
- Hour 4.Examining Labels, Buttons, and Text Boxes
- Part II: Coding the Details
- Hour 5.Putting Code into Visual Basic
- Hour 6.Message and Input Boxes
- Hour 7.Making Decisions
- Hour 8.Visual Basic Looping
- Part III:Putting Code to Work
- Hour 9.Combining Code and Controls
- Hour 10.List Boxes and Data Lists
- Hour 11.Additional Controls
- Hour 12.Dialog Box Basics
- Part IV:Programming with Data
- Hour 13.Modular Programming
- Hour 14.Built-In Functions Save Time
- Hour 15.Visual Basic Database Basics
- Hour 16.Printing with Visual Basic
- Part V:Sprucing Up Programs
- Hour 17.Menus and Visual Basic
- Hour 18.The Graphic Image Controls
- Hour 19.Toolbars and More Graphics
- Hour 20.Writing Correct Applications
- Part VI:Advancing Visual Basic Applications
- Hour 21.Visual Basic and ActiveX
- Hour 22.Object Basics
- Hour 23.Distributing Your Applications
- Hour 24.Online Visual Basic
- Part VII:Appendixes
- Appendix A.Operator Precedence
- Appendix B.Answers
- Appendix C.Using the CD-ROM
Starting Visual Basic
You start Visual Basic from the Windows Start menu. The Visual Basic development environment itself usually appears on a Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 submenu, although yours might be called something different due to installation differences. You'll see additional programs listed on the submenu, but when you select Visual Basic 6.0 from the submenu, Visual Basic loads and appears on your screen.
A dialog box similar to Figure 1.1 appears as soon as you start Visual Basic. The exact dialog box you see may differ slightly depending on your version of VB 6.0.
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Figure 1.1 The New Project dialog box appears when you start VB.
After you close the dialog box, the regular Visual Basic screen appears. As Figure 1.2 shows, VB's opening screen can get busy! Figure 1.2 shows the Visual Basic development environment, the environment with which you will soon be intimately familiar. From this development environment you will create Windows programs.
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Figure 1.2 VB's screen might look confusing at first.
Although the screen can look confusing, you can fully customize the Visual Basic screen to suit your needs and preferences. Over time, you'll adjust the screen's window sizes and hide and display certain windows so that your Visual Basic screen's start-up state might differ tremendously from that of Figure 1.2.
A dockable window is one that you can resize and move to the sides of the screen and connect to other windows.
The section "Mastering the Development Environment," later in this hour, explains the parts of the development environment and how to maneuver within it.
Stopping Visual Basic | Next Section
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