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The Latest

Passing a Form to a Sub/Function

Question: How do I pass a form as an argument to a function or procedure? I have tried passing the the form name directly and the form name as a

Redirecting DIR Command Output

Question: How do I create the VB equivalent of the command belowDIR C: /S /B >MYFILE.LSTI need this routine for a program that keeps track of installedand removed files. Answer:

Distributing VB400xx.DLL with Applications

Question: I just wrote my first VB4 program, the “Hello World” program out of the SAMS book, “Learn VB4 in 21 Days”. My question is this: I compiled my program

Filling DBGrid Manually

Question: Id like to no how you address text to the DbGrid1 custom control. For example the Grid control addressesby How would I do this with the DbGrid1 custom control

Opening a Topic Through Code

Question: What steps do I take to open/ retrieve a particular help topic (usingContext string/ID) of a Help File? Answer: This code, using the CommonDialog control, could be put behind

Intercepting Windows Messages

Question: I want to add a new item to the control box menu(or system menu). I add a new item using API’s likeAppendMenu and InsertMenu and both work fine, but

Using Ampersands in Labels

Question: I can’t seem to figure out how to place a “&” sign in a text field or in a label’s caption. Answer: Try putting two ampersands next to each

Validating Input Data in LostFocus

Question: I have two fields on the screen that I use to enter a date range. I want to check the entry on the lost focus with IsDate, and in

Simulating Buttons

Question: I would like to make a row (in a frame) of command buttons that could light up when depressed. And also have some small round buttons (like option buttons)

Memory Management: Lost Resources

Question: Each time I run a certain application from VB environment, resources go lower and lower. When I exit VB, all the memory is released.I do not have that problem

Dynamically Creating Controls

Question: I am a teacher (this explains my lack of expertise at understanding many VB technicalitiesin manuals etc.) experimenting with creating bits and pieces of software for children with learning

Executing DOS Commands

Question: How can I run the following “SHELL” command in VB? It works fine in PowerBasic, but VB 3.0 doesn’t like it.SHELL “DIR *.BKP > FILES.LST”Any ideas? Answer: Try this:Shell

Handling Dependent Processes

Question: I need execute some commands to rename/copy files. What is the best method of performing this type of function.I do not want to fire off a batch file, but

Screen Saver Development

Question: What all do I need to know to create a screen saver in Visual Basic? Answer: Windows screensavers are easy and fun to write in Visual Basic, but there

Object Was Unloaded Error

Question: When I try to unload some forms with database controls on them while in the Form_Load event, VB tries to show the form again and issues the statement ‘Object

Grids with Spanning Columns

Question: I need a way to make a grid/table that would support headers and cell data spanning multiple rows as wellas multiple columns. Any ideas? Answer: VideoSoft has a product

Limiting Size of Popup Windows

Question: How do you limit the size of a help file definition window? When I program a pop-up window for a definition, its as big as the main Help window

Accessing a DBGrid Cell

Question: How can get the Text contained in a specified Cell in DBGrid? Answer: If you set the Row and Col properties first, you can then look at the “Text”

Changing Default Title on Window

Question: I made a copy of a project for a new application. The problem is that each time a message box is displayed it has the old project name as

Getting Available Disk Space

Question: I am looking for a way to determine the numberof bytes on a hard drive. Preferable I’d liketo know the total bytes on a drive and the bytes used

Dynamically Positioning Controls at Runtime

Question: It is easy to use control arrays to load controls inside a container. Now the problem is I do not know how many containers e.g., groups of option buttions,

Centering a Form on the Screen

Question: How do I center a form on the monitor regardless of monitor resolution? Answer: The Screen object contains the properties of the current display. In the Form_Load event, you

Right-Justifying Output

Question: My VB program produces as output, paper reports such as Income Statements and Balance Sheets. How do we get the numbers to print as they should, that is, dollars

Getting Started

Question: We have a big complete hospital system written in ClipperWe had looked at VO, but that does not seem to be the way to goWe will now concentrate on

Creating Delays

Question: Can you suggest ways to delay sending keystrokes to the external application? I’ve tried inserting ‘For-Next’ loops of different durations but without success. Answer: Try a timer control. That

RecordCount Incorrect

Question: VB reports the wrong number of records from an Access database with the RecordCount property. The same query to dBase files reports the correct number of records. What is

Converting 4.0 Files to 3.0 Format

Question: I use version 4.0 and the school I go to uses version 3.0. I use windows 95 and they use windows 3.1. I know you can convert a 3.0

Creating Help Files for VB

Question: I am new to Visual Basic and wanted to know how to write those nifty little help files. Answer: Help files are fairly easy to create. All you need

Masked Edit Control: Clearing the Text

Question: Could you tell me how to clear a MaskEdit Field? Answer: To clear a masked edit field’s text, you first have to set the mask to “”, then set

My Nightmare, and an Apology

rom 1981 through 1986, I taught high school. I was fresh out of college (OK, a semester of engineering grad school which “didn’t take”), didn’t

Seeing the Silverlight

icrosoft has officially entered the space of rich interactive browser development with a new product called Silverlight. To better understand what Silverlight is you simply

Creating Web Sites with ASP.NET 2.0

rom basic, static HTML pages to totally data-driven and data-centric Web applications, the demands on a Web developer are much more complex and demanding than

Working with Nullable Types in C#

orking with value types was sometimes awkward in .NET 1.x, because they could cause serious problems in applications that retrieved data from database tables containing

Visualizing Data: Self-Documenting Ant files

I have always been fascinated by informational graphics. Mathematicians aside, most people find properly rendered information graphics easier to assimilate and quicker to understand than