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TUTORIAL 3
Objectives Welcome Application
In this tutorial, you will learn to:
■ Set the text in the Form’s title
bar. Introduction to Visual Programming
■ Change the Form’s
background color.
■ Place a Label control on the
Form.
■ Display text in a Label
control.
■ Place a PictureBox control
on the Form.
■ Display an image in a oday, users prefer software with interactive graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
PictureBox control. Tthat respond to actions such as Button clicks, data input and much more. As
■ Execute an application. a result, the vast majority of Windows applications, such as Microsoft Word
and Internet Explorer, are GUI based. With Visual Basic, you can create Win-
dows applications that input and output information in a variety of ways, which
Outline you learn throughout the book.
3.1 Test-Driving the Welcome In this tutorial, you use visual programming to complete the Welcome appli-
Application cation you began creating in Tutorial 2. You’ll build the application’s GUI by
3.2 Constructing the Welcome placing two controls—a Label and a PictureBox—on the Form. You’ll use the
Application Label control to display text and the PictureBox control to display an image.
3.3 Objects Used in the You’ll customize the appearance of the Form, Label and PictureBox objects by
Welcome Application setting values in the Properties window. You’ll set many property values, includ-
3.4 Wrap-Up ing the Form’s background color, the PictureBox’s image and the Label’s text.
You also learn how to execute your application in the Visual Basic 2008 IDE.
3.1 Test-Driving the Welcome Application
The last tutorial introduced you to the Visual Basic 2008 IDE. In this tutorial,
you’ll use Visual Basic to build the Welcome application mentioned in
Tutorial 2. This application must meet the following requirements:
Application Requirements
Recall that a software company (Deitel & Associates) has asked you to
develop a simple Welcome application that includes the greeting “Welcome
to Visual Basic 2008!” and a picture of the company’s bug mascot. Now that
you are familiar with the Visual Basic IDE, your task is to develop this applica-
tion to satisfy the company’s request.
You begin by test-driving the completed application. Then you’ll learn the
additional Visual Basic technologies that you’ll need to create your own version
of this application.
simplyvb2008_03.fm January 28, 2008 5:12 pm 39
© 2008 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
40 Introduction to Visual Programming Tutorial 3
Test-Driving the Welcome 1. Opening the completed application. Start Visual Basic and select File >
Application Open Project... (Fig. 3.1) to display the Open Project dialog (Fig. 3.2).
Select the C:\Examples\Tutorial03\CompletedApplication\Welcome
directory. Select the Welcome solution file (Welcome.sln) and click the
Open Button.
Open Project… command
(selected) opens an existing
project
Figure 3.1 Opening an existing project with the File menu’s Open Project...
command.
Open Project dialog
Welcome solution file
Figure 3.2 Open Project dialog displaying the contents of the Welcome
solution.
2. Opening the Form in design view. Double click Welcome.vb in the Solution
Explorer to open the Welcome application’s Form in design view (Fig. 3.3).
Figure 3.3 Welcome application’s Form in design view.
simplyvb2008_03.fm January 28, 2008 5:12 pm
© 2008 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Tutorial 3 Welcome Application 41
(cont.) 3. Running the Welcome application. Select Debug > Start Debugging
(Fig. 3.4). The Start Debugging command runs the application. The Wel-
come Form shown in Fig. 3.5 appears.
Start Debugging command
(selected) runs the application
Figure 3.4 Running the Welcome application using the Debug menu’s Start
Debugging command.
Close
box
Figure 3.5 Welcome application running.
4. Closing the application. Close the running application by clicking its close
box ( ).
5. Closing the project. Close the project by selecting File > Close Project.
3.2 Constructing the Welcome Application
In this section, you perform the steps necessary to develop the Welcome applica-
tion. The application consists of a single Form that uses a Label control and a Pic-
tureBox control. A Label control displays text that the user cannot change. A
PictureBox control displays an image that the user cannot change. You will not
write a single line of code to create this application. Instead, you’ll use the tech-
nique called visual programming, in which Visual Basic processes your actions
(such as clicking, dragging and dropping controls) and writes the program for you!
The following box shows you how to begin constructing the Welcome application,
using the solution you created in Tutorial 2 as a starting point.
simplyvb2008_03.fm January 28, 2008 5:12 pm
© 2008 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
42 Introduction to Visual Programming Tutorial 3
Changing the Form’s File 1. Opening the Welcome application’s project. Double click the
Name and Title Bar Text C:\SimplyVB2008\Welcome\Welcome.sln file that you created in
Tutorial 2 to open your application. Double click Form1.vb in the Solution
Explorer window to display the blank Form. Figure 3.6 shows the Welcome
application open in the IDE.
IDE title bar
Solution Explorer
Toolbar window
Form title bar Project name
Form file name
Blank Form
Figure 3.6 Blank Form.
2. Changing the Form’s file name. When a Windows application is created,
Visual Basic names the Form file Form1.vb. Select Form1.vb in the Solution
Explorer window (Fig. 3.6) to display the file’s properties in the Properties
Good Programming window (the window on the left in Fig. 3.7). If either window is not visible,
Practice you can select View > Properties Window or View > Solution Explorer to
display the appropriate window. Double click the field to the right of the
Change your application’s Form file File Name property’s box to select the current file name, and type
name (Form1.vb) to a name that Welcome.vb (Fig.3.7). Press the Enter key to update the Form’s file name.
describes the application’s purpose. Note that the file name changes in the Solution Explorer window (the win-
dow on the right in Fig. 3.7) and in the Properties window.
File properties
New file name
Selected property New property
value
Selected property description
GUI Design Tip Figure 3.7 Changing the Form’s file name.
Choose short, descriptive Form titles. 3. Setting the text in the Form’s title bar. The title bar is the top portion of the
Capitalize words that are not arti- window that contains the window’s title. To change the text in the Form’s title
cles, prepositions or conjunctions. bar from Form1 to Welcome, use the Properties window (Fig. 3.8). Click
Do not use punctuation.
the gray area in the
Form. As in Fig. 3.7, double click the field to the right of
the Text property in the Properties window to select the current text, and
type
Welcome. Press the Enter key to update the Form’s title bar (Fig. 3.9).
Selected property Property value
Selected property description
Figure 3.8 Setting the Form’s Text property.
simplyvb2008_03.fm January 28, 2008 5:12 pm
© 2008 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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