Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

10 Part I Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Basic 2010

In the following exercises, you’ll start experimenting with the crucial tools in the Visual Studio

IDE. You’ll also learn how to display a Web browser within Visual Studio and how to hide the

tools that you won’t use for a while.

The Designer

If you completed the last exercise (“Open a Visual Basic project”), the MusicTrivia project is

loaded in the Visual Studio development environment. However, the user interface, or form,

for the project might not yet be visible in Visual Studio. (More sophisticated projects might

contain several forms, but this simple trivia program needs only one .) To make the form of

the MusicTrivia project visible in the IDE, you display it by using Solution Explorer.

Display the Designer

1. Locate the Solution Explorer window near the upper-right corner of the Visual Studio
   development environment. If you don’t see Solution Explorer (if it is hidden as a tab
   in a location that you cannot see or isn’t currently visible), click Solution Explorer on
   the View menu to display it.
   When the MusicTrivia project is loaded, Solution Explorer looks like this:


2. Click the MusicTrivia .vb form in the Solution Explorer window.

All form files, including this one, have a tiny form icon next to them so that you can

easily identify them. When you click the form file, Visual Studio highlights it in Solution

Explorer, and some information about the file appears in the Properties window (if it is

visible).

3. At the top of the Solution Explorer window, click the View Designer button in Solution
   Explorer to display the program’s user interface.