This tip has been published more than once on pages of VBPJ(See “99 of the Hottest Tech Tips For VB Developers,”Supplement to the February 1996 issue of VBPJ, page 17).This

Much of the ease of use of Windows 95 comes from the fact thatits user interface objects have their own context menus, whichcan be accessed through a simple right-click of

While we are speaking of SendMessage, there is another trick youmay find interesting enough to include in your programming habits.When used with some particular messages, the lParam argument isreally considered

I was surprised to learn that the SWAP command was not implementedin Visual Basic when I read a letter in the February 1996 issueof VBPJ requesting that Microsoft bring to

Are your programs not executing instructions in VB4 that wereexecuting in VB3? Try this in Qbasic, VB3, and VB4: BEEP: BEEP: BEEP If you F8-step through this very complex code,

Most programmers want their applications to look like commercial software, so they want to add their ownhelp files. How do you open the contents of a Windows help file in

If you are you unhappy with Microsoft’s comment in the help (“Note:You cannot specify where a common dialog box is displayed”),but like the idea of common dialog controls, try this.

To make icons look better, Windows 95 uses three standard-size icons;16-by-16, 32-by-32, and 48-by-48. These three standard sizes should beincluded in any ICO file you create for inclusion in your

The User Tip submitted by Nick Bulka in the January 1996 issueof VBPJ was interesting, but, as with so much code, improvable: Sub TextHiLite( t as TextBox ) t.SelStart =

With the advent of long file names in Windows 95, it may be necessary to display a trimmed version of a path in a text box or label. The following

If your users have the option to type a directory where they wantfiles installed, they may type a directory that doesn’t existor a directory that is several levels below another

To center a form, you only need one API call, no UDTs, and two constants. This solution is based on thefact that GetSystemMetrics reflects real estate taken up by the

In a collection object, such as the ListItems collection from the ListView control, or simply a generic VBcollection object, you can specify a key to uniquely identify the item. Documentation

In VB4, DBGrid’s columns can be referenced using object variables. Thisreduces the amount of typing required and makes code more readable. Thecode is also more efficient because the full name

I have found a solution to the problem of GetModuleUsage not workingin 32-bit VB4. The TaskID returned by Shell can be used by AppActivatelike this: TaskID = Shell(“DOSAPP.EXE”, _ vbNormalFocus)

Jet 3.0 (32-bit VB4 only) includes a new security system basedon database passwords that you may use instead of the more complex,more secure, workgroup security system. This system allows youto

Set the number of columns in VB4’s DBGrid at design time by right-clickingon the grid and selecting Edit from the menu. (The grid can now be editedinteractively at design time.)

A new Windows 95-only API call notifies the system that you’ve changedsomething it should know about. The call, SHChangeNotify, is very handyin a number of cases. You might make this

VB4’s commands for dealing with file names (such as KILL, MKDIR, andFILECOPY) support long file names without programmer interaction. A numberof the Win95 API functions will return only the short

The ShellAbout API call provides a quick and easy way to show an aboutbox (using the standard Win95 format) without having to include an additionalform in your project. The call

MouseMove events don’t occur when the control’s Enabled property is set to False. My method tackles this problem and is useful when you want to display the Tooltips or Notes

If you’re checking a numeric value against 0, one option is to usethe “” operator: If iNumber 0 Then … End If It is faster, however, to check the variable

I’m developing a database program that deals with many auxiliary files at same time. Everyone codingdatabase programs must create some temporary files to produce an output from SQL or a

Pay close attention to the color selections you make in your forms.Windows 95 gives the user more control over colors than previous versionsof Windows allowed. problems arise if the user

Use the connect parameter of the OpenDatabase method to open adatabase that is password-protected in VB4-32. For example, thiscode opens the Secure database with a password of “dirt”: Dim wrk

Windows 95 is a preemptive multitasking system. As a result of this,no single application monopolizes the entire CPU at any given time. Manyof the DoEvents() calls previously used in Windows

This routine allows you to put a fairly accurate time delay, veryuseful for I/O routines and nice, graphic-delayed drawing routinesin your code: Sub Delay (milliseconds As Integer)’ This Routine uses

Windows text boxes always work in insert mode and don’t provide anoverstrike mode. However, overstrike mode can easily be emulated as shownhere: Sub Text1_KeyPress (KeyAscii As Integer) If KeyAscii >=

One way to speed list-box loading is to eliminate the constant redrawingrequired while loading. You can do this by calling the LockWindowUpdateAPI. LockWindowUpdate accepts an HWND as a parameter to