Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

110 Part I Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Basic 2010

Your new button is complete, and you have learned how to add your own buttons to the

toolbar, in addition to the default items supplied by Visual Studio. Now you’ll learn how to

delete and rearrange toolbar buttons.

Move and delete toolbar buttons

1. Drag the new Color button to the left side of the toolbar.

Visual Studio lets you rearrange your toolbar buttons by using simple drag movements.

2. Right-click the second button in the toolbar (New), and then click the Delete command.

The New button is removed from the toolbar. With the Delete command, you can

delete unwanted buttons, which makes it easy to customize the standard toolbar

buttons provided by the ToolStrip control.

3. Delete the Save and Print buttons, but be sure to keep the Color and Open buttons.

You’ll learn how to save and print in Chapter 13, “Exploring Text Files and String

Processing,” and Chapter 17, “Working with Printers,” later in the book. Now, however,

you’ll learn to use dialog box controls and connect them to toolbar buttons.

Using Dialog Box Controls

Visual Studio contains eight standard dialog box controls on the Dialogs and Printing tabs

of the Toolbox. These dialog boxes are ready-made, so you don’t need to create your own

custom dialog boxes for the most common tasks in Windows applications, such as opening,

saving, and printing files. In many cases, you’ll still need to write the event procedure code

that connects these dialog boxes to your program, but the user interfaces are built for you

and conform to the standards for common use among Windows applications.

The eight standard dialog box controls available to you are listed in Table 4-2. Note that

the PrintPreviewControl control isn’t listed here, but you’ll find it useful if you use the

PrintPreviewDialog control. (When you’re ready to learn about adding printer support to your

programs, see Chapter 17 .)

TABLE 4-2 Standard Dialog Box Controls

Control Purpose

OpenFileDialog Gets the drive, folder name, and file name for an existing file

SaveFileDialog Gets the drive, folder name, and file name for a new file

FontDialog Lets the user choose a new font type and style

ColorDialog Lets the user select a color from a palette

FolderBrowserDialog Lets the user navigate through a computer’s folder structure and select

a folder