1

2
Introduction to
the Visual
Basic Express
2005 IDE
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Seeing is believing.
— Proverb

Form ever follows function.

— Louis Henri Sullivan

Intelligence …is the faculty of making

artificial objects, especially tools to make tools.
— Henri-Louis Bergson

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OBJECTIVES
In this chapter you will learn:
 The basics of the Visual Studio Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) that assists you in writing, running
and debugging your Visual Basic programs.
 Visual Studio’s help features.
 Key commands contained in the IDE’s menus and toolbars.
 The purpose of the various kinds of windows in the
Visual Studio 2005 IDE.
 What visual programming is and how it simplifies and speeds
program development.
 To create, compile and execute a simple Visual Basic
program that displays text and an image using the Visual
Studio IDE and the technique of visual programming.

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2.1 Introduction
2.2 Overview of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE
2.3 Menu Bar and Toolbar
2.4 Navigating the Visual Studio IDE
2.4.1 Solution Explorer
2.4.2 Toolbox
2.4.3 Properties Window
2.5 Using Help
2.6 Using Visual Programming to Create a Simple
Program that Displays Text and an Image
2.7 Wrap-Up
2.8 Web Resources

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2.1 Introduction

• Visual Studio 2005

– Microsoft Integrate Development Environment (IDE)
• Create, run, and debug programs

• Visual Programming
– Create program by dragging and dropping predefined
building blocks into place

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2.2 Overview of the Visual Studio 2005

IDE
• Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
– Only support Visual Basic programming language

• Start page (Fig. 2.1)

– A list of links to resources in the IDE and on the internet

• Visual Basic Express Headlines and MSDN (Fig. 2.2)

– This section provides links to information about programming in
VB

• Note: MSDN stands for Microsoft Developer Network

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Fig. 2.1 | Start Page in Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition.

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Fig. 2.2 | Displaying a Web page in Visual Studio.

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2.2 Overview of the Visual Studio 2005

IDE (Cont.)
• Creating a New Project
– New Project Dialog (Fig. 2.3)
• Dialog to choose type of program to build
– Windows Form Designer (Fig. 2.4)
• Design portion of IDE
– Properties
• Change a component of the program (Fig. 2.5)
– Buttons
• Confirm action, change and etc. (Fig. 2.6)

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Fig. 2.3 | New Project dialog.

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Fig. 2.4 | Design view of the IDE.

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Fig. 2.5 | Text box control for modifying a property in the Visual Studio IDE.

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Fig. 2.6 | Dialog for modifying a control’s font properties in the Visual Studio IDE.

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2.3 Menu Bar and Toolbar

• Menu Bar (Fig. 2.7)

– The bar of where the commands for managing the IDE
and for developing, maintaining and executing programs
are located
• Tool Bar (Fig. 2.9)
– The bar of where the more common commands are located
• Tool Tip (Fig. 2.12)
– Description of a icon

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Fig. 2.7 | Visual Studio menu bar.

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Menu Description

File Contains commands for opening, closing, adding and saving projects,
as well as printing project data and exiting Visual Studio.
Edit Contains commands for editing programs, such as cut, copy, paste,
undo, redo, delete, find and select.
View Contains commands for displaying windows (e.g., Solution Explorer,
Toolbox, Properties window) and for adding toolbars to the IDE.
Project Contains commands for managing projects and their files.
Build Contains commands for compiling programs.
Debug Contains commands for debugging (i.e., identifying and correcting
problems in programs) and running programs. Debugging is discussed
in detail in Appendix C.

Fig. 2.8 | Summary of Visual Studio 2005 IDE menus. (part 1 of 2.)

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Menu Description

Data Contains commands for interacting with databases (i.e.,organized

collections of data stored on computers), which we discuss in Chapter
20, Databases, SQL and [Link].
Format Contains commands for arranging and modifying a form’s controls.
Note that the Format menu appears only when a GUI component is
selected in Design view.
Tools Contains commands for accessing additional IDE tools (e.g., the
Toolbox) and options that enable customization of the IDE.
Window Contains commands for arranging and displaying windows.
Community Contains commands for sending questions directly to Microsoft,
checking question status, sending feedback on Visual Basic and
searching the CodeZone developer center and the Microsoft developers
community site.
Help Contains commands for accessing the IDE’s help features.

Fig. 2.8 | Summary of Visual Studio 2005 IDE menus. (part 2 of 2.)

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Fig. 2.9 | Standard Visual Studio toolbar.

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Fig. 2.10 | Adding the Build toolbar to the IDE.

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Fig. 2.11 | IDE toolbar icon showing additional command.

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Fig. 2.12 | Tool tip demonstration.

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Fig. 2.13 | Toolbar icons for three Visual Studio windows.

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2.4 Navigating the Visual Studio 2005 IDE

• Auto-Hide (Fig. 2.14 – 2.16)

– Space saving feature
• Solution Explorer (Fig. 2.17 – 2.20)
– Provides access to all of the files in a solution
• Toolbox (Fig. 2.21)
– Contains icons representing controls used to customize form
• Properties Window (Fig. 2.22)
– The window to change information about a form or control

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Fig. 2.14 | Auto-hide feature demonstration.

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Fig. 2.15 | Displaying a hidden window when auto-hide is enabled.

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Fig. 2.16 | Disabling auto-hide (“pinning down” a window).

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Fig. 2.17 | Solution Explorer with an open project.

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Fig. 2.18 | Solution Explorer showing plus boxes and minus boxes for expanding
and collapsing the tree to reveal or hide project files.

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Fig. 2.19 | Solution Explorer expanding the My Project file after clicking its plus box.

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Fig. 2.20 | Solution Explorer collapsing all files after clicking any minus boxes.

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Fig. 2.21 | Toolbox window displaying controls for the Common Controls group.

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Fig. 2.22 | Properties window.

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2.5 Using Help

• Dynamic Help (Fig. 2.24)

– Excellent way to get information quickly about the IDE
and its features
• Context-Sensitive Help (Fig. 2.25)
– Immediately displays a relevant help article

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Command Description
How Do I? Contains links to relevant topics, including how to upgrade programs
and learn more about Web services, architecture and design, files and
I/O, data, debugging and more.
Search Finds help articles based on search keywords.
Index Displays an alphabetized list of topics you can browse.

Contents Displays a categorized table of contents in which help articles are

organized by topic.

Fig. 2.23 | Help menu commands.

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Fig. 2.24 | Dynamic Help window.

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Fig. 2.25 | Using context-sensitive help.

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Fig. 2.26 | Options dialog displaying Help settings.

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2.6 Using Visual Programming to Create
a Simple Program Displaying Text and an
Image
• Creating a Simple Program
– Create the new project (Fig. 2.28-2.30)
– Set the text in in the form’s title bar (Fig. 2.31)
– Resize the form (Fig. 2.32-2.33)
– Change the form’s background color (Fig. 2.34-2.35)
– Add a Label control to the Form (Fig. 2.36)
– Customize the Label’s appearance (Fig. 2.37-2.38)
– Set the Label’s font size (Fig. 2.39-2.40)

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2.6 Using Visual Programming to Create
a Simple Program Displaying Text and an
Image (Cont.)
• Creating a Simple Program (Cont.)
– Align the Label’s text (Fig. 2.41)
– Add a PictureBox to the form (Fig. 2.42)
– Insert an image (Fig. 2.43-2.47)
– Save the project
– Run the project (Fig. 2.47-2.49)
– Terminate execution

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Fig. 2.27 | Simple program executing.

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Fig. 2.28 | New Project dialog.

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Fig. 2.29 | Save Project dialog.

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Fig. 2.30 | Setting the project location in the Project Location dialog.

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Fig. 2.31 | Setting the form’s Text property in the Properties window.

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Fig. 2.32 | Form with enabled sizing handles.

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Fig. 2.33 | Resized form.

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Fig. 2.34 | Changing the form’s BackColor property.

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Fig. 2.35 | Form with new BackColor property applied.

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Fig. 2.36 | Adding a Label to the form.

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Fig. 2.37 | Changing the Label’s AutoSize property to False.

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Fig. 2.38 | GUI after the form and Label have been customized.

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Fig. 2.39 | Properties window displaying the Label’s properties.

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Fig. 2.40 | Font dialog for selecting fonts, styles and sizes.

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Fig. 2.41 | Centering the Label’s text.

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Fig. 2.42 | Inserting and aligning a PictureBox.

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Fig. 2.43 | Image property of the PictureBox.

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Fig. 2.44 | Select Resource dialog to select an image for the PictureBox.

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Fig. 2.45 | Select Resource dialog displaying a preview of selected image.

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Fig. 2.46 | Scaling an image to the size of the PictureBox.

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Fig. 2.47 | PictureBox displaying an image.

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Fig. 2.48 | Building a solution.

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Fig. 2.49 | IDE in run mode, with the running program in the foreground.

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