Visual Basic and Forms

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Revision as of 19:23, 18 July 2007 by Neil (Talk | contribs) (Changing The Form Background Image)

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The Windows Form is a vital component in the development of any Windows-based application. Forms essentially provide the windows that make up a Windows application. In fact, the terms window and form are often used interchangeably. Forms allow the Visual Basic developer to create windows and layout controls (such as buttons, labels etc) in those forms to provide the application's user interface.

In the next chapter (Designing Forms in Visual Basic) we will look at how to layout controls inside a form. Before we reach that stage, however, there are a surprising number of ways in which the form itself can be modified and configured. We will cover these options in detail in this chapter.


Contents


Creating a New Form

Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project. Begin by starting Visual Studio and creating a new Windows Application project (see Creating a New Visual Basic Project for details of how to do this). Name the project VBforms.

Once the new project is created you will see a Form in Visual Studio ready for you to begin work.

Changing the Form Name

All objects in a Visual Basic application need a name so that they can be referenced in the code. When a new object is added to an application in Visual Studio it is assigned a default name which usually consists of the object type and a number. For example the first form object in an application is named Form1, the second Form2, and so on.

To change the name of a Form to something more meaningful simply click in any area of the Form in Visual Studio and change the (Name) value in the Properties panel.


Changing the Form Title

Each form represents an application window. The text displayed in the title bar for each window should be changed to display something meaningful. This should eiher be the name of application, or a description of the form's function (for example Order Entry or Sales Report).

The value of the text to be displayed in the window title is defined by the form's Text property. To change the title of the form, therefore, select the Text value in the Properties panel and change it to a new value (for example, 'My Form Example'):

File:Exampl.jpg

Changing the Form Background Color

The background of any form may be changed either by specifying a new color, or by using a background image. The background color is controlled by the BackColor property of the form. By default this property is set to Control. This specifies that the form should use a system defined default color. This color varies between different Windows versions, and changes when the user changes the overall color scheme of their Windows system.

To change the background color, select the form in Visual Studio and locate the BackColor property in the Properties panel. There are a number of ways to specify a color.

  • Color by name - Simply type in a color name into the BackColor value field (for example Red, Yellow, Cyan etc).
  • Color by RGB value - Colors may be specified by entering the hexadecimal RGB values (for example #FFFFFF for white, #000000 for while and so on). RGB values may also be specified using decimal values (for example 255,255,255 for white, 0,0,0 for black etc).
  • Color from existing palette - Clicking on the down arrow in the BackColor value field will display a drop down menu. Lists are available for web safe colors, custom colors and system colors.

Once you have selected a new color the background color of your form will change to reflect the new setting:

File:Exampl.jpg

Changing The Form Background Image

In addition to changing the background color of a form, it is also possible to specify a background image. This is specified using the form's BackgroundImage property in the Properties panel. When the 'BackgroundImage property is selected in the Property panel a button containing the label '...' appears. Click on this button to display the Select Resource window:

File:Exampl.jpg

Click on the Local Resource option button and click on Import to browse for an image. If you don't have any images of your own readily available try looking in for the Sample Pictures folder in My Documents.

Once selected the image will be applied to the form background and any controls added will appear on top of the image. The following figure show a form with a background image a Button control:

File:Exampl.jpg