Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

349

Part III

Designing the User Interface

In this part:

Chapter 14: Managing Windows Forms and Controls at Run Time.......... 351

Chapter 15: Adding Graphics and Animation Effects...................... 375

Chapter 16: Inheriting Forms and Creating Base Classes................... 393

Chapter 17: Working with Printers...................................... 415

In Part II, you learned many of the core development skills necessary for writing Microsoft

Visual Basic applications. You learned how to use variables, operators, decision structures,

and the Microsoft .NET Framework; how to manage code flow with loops, timers, procedures,

and structured error handlers; how to debug your programs; and how to organize

information with arrays, collections, text files, and string processing techniques.

Each exercise you have worked with so far concentrated on one or more of these core skills

in a simple, stand-alone program. Real-world programs are rarely so simple. They usually

require you to combine the techniques in various ways and with various enhancements.

Your programs will quite often require multiple forms, used as dialog boxes, input and

output forms, reports, and other elements. Because Visual Basic treats each form as a

separate object, you can think of them as simple building blocks that you can combine to

create powerful programs.

In Part III, you’ll focus again on the user interface, and you’ll learn how to add multiform

projects, animation effects, visual inheritance, and printing support to your Visual Basic

applications.

Table of Contents

Designing the User Interface

Managing Windows Forms and Controls at Run Time........... 351

Adding New Forms to a Program..................................... 351

How Forms Are Used................................................ 352

Working with Multiple Forms......................................... 352

Using the DialogResult Property in the Calling Form............... 358

Positioning Forms on the Windows Desktop........................... 359

Minimizing, Maximizing, and Restoring Windows.................. 364

Adding Controls to a Form at Run Time............................... 364

Organizing Controls on a Form....................................... 367

One Step Further: Specifying the Startup Object........................ 371

Chapter 14 Quick Reference.......................................... 373