VB6 for Dummies: Chapter14

Event procedures! Now we're getting to the good stuff.
Event procedures respond to mouse clicks and key presses. They make things happen. Chapter 14 explains how event procedures work, how to write them, and how to find them.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 13

Chapter 13 of VB6 for Dummies covers the common dialog box. The reader needs to do a little more thinking in this chapter than in previous chapters and as the chapter finishes with the Print dialog I am left with questions. The code snippet shows how to make the Print dialog pop open and how to set the number of copies to 1 by default, but it does not show how to send actual data to the printer. For instance, let's say my application has a text box and the user wants to print the contents. Using just the information in this chapter we cannot provide this option for our users. At this point I see the shortcomings of this book's teaching approach.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 12

After a quick review of chapter 11 I finally moved on to chapter 12 of VB6 for Dummies. Chapter 12 teaches submenus, growing menus, and pop-up menus. Submenus are easy enough to make. The section on growing menus teases you... leading you to think you are going to learn how to show a list of recent files in a menu, but only goes half way. The section on pop-up menus has more information than I will ever need to know about pop-up menus, but it's there just in case.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 11

Chapter 11 of VB6 for Dummies is about making and editing pull-down menus. This is easy, boring, and absolutely necessary for Windows programming.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 10

This chapter has information of picture boxes, image boxes, and shapes. I tinkered a little with the sample program on the CD. Click HERE to download the project.

The author could have included a program that demonstrates how to load pictures into picture boxes, but instead chose to play with shapes.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of VB6 for Dummies is all about scroll bars and labels. There's need-to-know stuff in there, like how scroll bars actually work... I never knew that stuff before. The program for this chapter on the companion CD is worth looking at since it shows how to use data from the scroll bar and display it on a label. I just noticed the author didn't use 'Option Explicit' in his code!

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 8

Chapter 8 of VB6 for Dummies is about check boxes. The chapter is very basic, but the CD has a program to tinker with.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of VB6 for Dummies introduces check boxes, radio buttons, list boxes, combo boxes, and some useful information on how to use code with lists.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter6

Chapter 6 of VB6 for Dummies covers forms and buttons. Form borders and startup positions. Default Command and Cancel buttons. All really simple but good to know.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of VB6 for Dummies introduces objects, names, text, and captions. After this chapter you should know how to add objects to a form, move objects, resize objects, change object colors, and change object captions. The table with object name prefixes is handy.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 4

In Chapter 4 of VB6 for Dummies we write BASIC code to go with the simple form created in chapter 3.

The code looks something like this:

Private Sub cmdExit_Click() Unload Me End Sub Private Sub optFrown_Click() imgFrown.Visible = True imgSmile.Visible = False imgGrin.Visible = False txtSmile.Text = "" txtGrin.Text = "" txtFrown.Text = "Good bye, cruel world." End Sub Private Sub optGrin_Click() imgFrown.Visible = False imgSmile.Visible = False imgGrin.Visible = True txtSmile.Text = "" txtGrin.Text = "I'm going to Disney World!" txtFrown.Text = "" End Sub Private Sub optSmile_Click() imgFrown.Visible = False imgSmile.Visible = True imgGrin.Visible = False txtSmile.Text = "Hello, world!" txtGrin.Text = "" txtFrown.Text = "" End Sub

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 3

In chapter 3 of VB6 for Dummies you read about and make a GUI. That's short for Graphical User Interface. The book leads you through making a simple GUI from scratch and then shows you how to use the VB Application Wizard.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter2

Chapter 2 of VB6 for Dummies leads you through opening and closing VB6. It also introduces you to the user interface and how to open, close, dock and undock the user interface windows. Oh yeah, it also teaches you how to start a new project or open projects you've already worked on.

Why VB6 for Dummies?

I learned to program in VB6 back in 1999... sort of. I got barely passing grades for a couple of college courses.

Now I'd like to really learn VB6. I need to start over from scratch and pick a book that will really come down to my level. I've picked Visual Basic 6 for Dummies. The book comes with a CD-ROM that has sample programs. It's also the simplest-looking VB6 book I could find. In the book's introduction, the author claims that "If you can doodle mindlessly on a scrap of paper, you can write a program in Visual Basic 6. (Seriously!)". Something tells me I won't be creating major projects before the end of the book, but that's OK.

VB6 for Dummies: Chapter 1

So, it's past 1AM and what am I doing? I'm reading a dumbed-down programming book. I just read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Visual Basic 6 for Dummies. Chapter 1 just introduces you to the ideas forms, objects, and events and gives an overview of the development cycle.

I like Wallace Wang's writing style.