- Starting Visual Basic 2008
- Creating a New Project
- Understanding the Visual Studio 2008 Environment
- Changing the Characteristics of Objects
- Adding Controls to a Form
- Designing an Interface
- Writing the Code Behind an Interface
- Running a Project
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Understanding the Visual Studio 2008 Environment
The first time you run Visual Studio 2008, you'll notice that the IDE contains a number of windows, such as the Properties window on the right, which is used to view and set properties of objects. In addition to these windows, the IDE contains a number of tabs, such as the vertical Toolbox tab on the left edge of the IDE (refer to Figure 1.3). Try this now: Click the Toolbox tab to display the Toolbox window (clicking a tab displays an associated window). You can hover the mouse over a tab for a few seconds to display the window as well. To hide the window, simply move the mouse off the window (if you hovered over the tab to display it) or click another window. To close the window, click the Close (X) button in the window's title bar.
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You can adjust the size and position of any of these windows, and you can even hide and show them as needed. You'll learn how to customize your design environment in Hour 2.
The Properties window on the right side of the design environment is perhaps the most important window in the IDE, and it's the one you'll use most often. If your computer display resolution is set to 800x600, you can probably see only a few properties at this time. This makes it difficult to view and set properties as you create projects. All the screen shots in this book were captured at 800x600 due to size constraints, but you should run at a higher resolution if you can. I highly recommend that you develop applications with Visual Basic at a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher to have plenty of work space. To change your display settings, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Keep in mind, however, that end users might be running at a lower resolution than you are using for development.