Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

14 Part I Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Basic 2010

Change a property

1. Click the Label1 object on the form. (Label1 contains the text “What rock and roll
   instrument is often played with short, slapping thumb movements?”)
   To work with an object on a form, you must first select the object. When you select
   an object, resize handles appear around it, and the property settings for the object
   are displayed in the Properties window.


2. Click the Properties Window button on the Standard toolbar.

This button depicts a hand pointing and is on the right side of the toolbar. The

Properties window might or might not be visible in Visual Studio, depending on how

it’s been configured and used on your system. It usually appears below Solution

Explorer on the right side of the development environment. (If it is visible, you don’t

need to click the button, but you should click the window to activate it .)

You’ll see a window similar to the one shown in the following screen shot:

The Properties window lists all the property settings for the first label object (Label1)

on the form. (In Visual Basic 2010, more than 65 properties are associated with labels .)

Property names are listed in the left column of the window, and the current setting

for each property is listed in the right column. Because there are so many properties

(including some that are rarely modified), Visual Studio organizes them into categories

and displays them in outline view. If a category has a triangular arrow sign (>) next to

it, you can click the arrow to display all the properties in that category. If a category

has a dark rotated arrow next to it, the properties are all visible, but you can hide the

list under the category name by clicking the arrow again.