Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• 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
    • Understanding Control Focus at Runtime
    • The Mouse and Hotkeys Need No Focus
    • Related Properties
    • Tab Order
    • Command Buttons
    • Labels
    • Text Boxes
    • Form Properties
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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

Tab Order

The user can move the focus from control to control by pressing Tab (or Shift+Tab to move the focus backward). If you place eight controls on an application's form, what focus order will result? In other words, as the user presses Tab, will the controls get the focus from a left-to-right or from a top-to-bottom order?

VB sets the default focus order in the order you place controls on the form. Therefore, if you place the top control first and the bottom control second, and then insert a third control in the middle of the form, the focus order will not move down the form in the order the user probably expects.

You don't always place controls on a form in the same order in which you want to set the focus. Therefore, controls that can receive the focus support a property called the TabIndex property. The first control in the focus order has a TabIndex property of 0, the second control in the focus order has a TabIndex of 1, and so on. If you place controls on the form and then later want to modify the focus order, you need to change the TabIndex property values of controls.

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