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Make Forms Stay on Top

To set a form to be always on top, use the subroutine listed here.Pass it the hWnd property of the form you want to float. The OnTop parameteris used to

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Use VShare.386

When you’re using OLE or the JET database engine, you’ll need to loadSHARE on your system and all systems you deliver your app to. In the lattercase, you are guaranteed

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Use ByVal When API Calls Cause Problems

If an API call is not achieving the desired or expected effects, tryplacing ByVal in front of parameters. Likely ones to cause trouble arestrings and anything declared “As Any.” The

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Changing Colors and Fonts of DataGrid Cells

Attributes such as the foreground color, background color, and fontsof cells in Sheridan’s DataGrid can easily be changed by setting RowCellxxxxproperties such as RowCellForeColor, RowCellBackColor, RowCellItalic, andso on from within

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Get Rid of Unused Declare Statements

When you use the Declare statement, approximately 11 bytes are addedto the size of your EXE. The name of the function and library where itresides are also stored in the

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Call the Click Event

If you need to fire a command button’s Click event, you can set theValue property to True: cmdAdd.Value = True The real benefit of this is that you can call

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Indicating Selected/Deselected States for Items

You can set .SelectedColor and .FillColor in the Mh3DList to be thesame, and use .ListPicture and .ListPictureSel properties to indicate selected/deselectedstates. Related Posts Cross-platform Development in C# with XamarinCyber Security

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Avoid the Outline Control

The Outline control might at first seem very usable. Well, it isn’t.Apart from the arcane interface, it’s almost guaranteed to blow up yourapp if it’s running on a “nonstandard” video

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Tips on Using Boolean Logic

Programmer’s of all skill levels often make errors when using Booleanlogic. This statement might not evaluate the way you think it should: IF (SomeNumber AND 16) OR _ (SomeOtherNumber 0)

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Always Use These

Always use Option Explicit: it draws immediate attention to variabletypos. Always use Save As Text: files are less easily corrupted, more easilyrecovered, and editable by a text editor other than

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Clearing the Contents of a Datagrid

If the DataGrid is bound to a VB data control, you need to set theRecordSource property of the data control to “” (null string)and then use the Refresh method: Sub

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Troubleshooting Erratic VBX Behavior

If a VBX is acting erratically, make sure you are using the most currentversion of the VBX on your system (and make sure to put it into your user’sWindows/System directory

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Easy-to-Implement Status Bar with Spyworks

The SBCEasy custom control that comes with Desaware’s SpyWorks-VB canbe used to update a status bar whenever the mouse moves over any controlor form in your application. All you need

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Menu Status on MDI Forms with Spyworks-VB

Many features of SBCEasy (a tool that comes with Desaware’s SpyWorks-VB)work only on its container, and because it cannot be placed on a MDI Parentform, the MenuSelect event does not

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Eliminate Dead Code

Be sure to remove functions or procedures that you are no longer using.If you delete a control, be sure to remove the event procedures that weretied to that control. Related

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Set ClipControls Property to False

Setting the ClipControls property to False significantly reduces thetime it takes forms to paint. The default is True, so you’ll need to changeit to False. If you’re using graphics methods,

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Shorten Control and Form Names

Keep control and form names as short as possible. Such names are keptin the EXE file. Variable names, however, are not kept in the EXE. Related Posts Greece sees significant

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Editing Grid Cells

Grids provide a nice way to present certain types of spreadsheet information.Unfortunately, the grid in VB does not allow editing. With just a littlebit of code you can simulate editing

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VB Assist Quick Tips

Using the AutoSave feature in the VBAssist Options box automaticallysaves changes made to your project after a defined time interval. To temporarily bypass VBAssist’s Control Lock feature, hold down theCtrl

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Toggle Boolean Values Using Not

To toggle a variable between True and False, use the Not operator insteadof an If statement. Use the Not operator on those variables you have explicitlyset with the True or

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Setting Tab Stops in List Boxes

To quickly set tab stops in list boxes, use the SendMessage API call.The units used are called Dialog Base Units, which average out to aboutfour per character. Some experimentation is

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Use the Controls Collection

If you need to reference every control on a form, using the Controlscollection will be faster than referencing every control directly. Forexample, if you have four command buttons on a

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Preventing “Invalid Use of Null” Errors

If your app uses database or other functions that can return Null variants,your app will crash sooner or later with that dreaded “Invalid Useof Null” error. Preventing it is simple:

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In-Line Code

Calling a function or procedure incurs some overhead. If you have atwo-line function that is called from only three places, you might considerputting those three lines in the functions themselves

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Use Specific Object Types

When passing controls as parameters, make the function that is receivingthe parameter accept the specific object type instead of generic types.The exception to this is when multiple types of objects

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Set AutoRedraw to False

If AutoRedraw is set to True, VB keeps a bitmap of the form in memorythat it uses to redraw the form after another window in front of it isclosed. Because