Datasheet

Figure 1-9

2. Notice that the form’s filename has also been updated in the Solution Explorer to read

HelloUser.vb.

3. Now click the form displayed in the Design window. The Properties window will change to dis-

play the form’s Form properties (instead of the File properties, which you have just been look-

ing at). You will notice that the Properties window is dramatically different. The difference is

the result of two different views of the same file. When the form name is highlighted in the

Solution Explorer window, the physical file properties of the form are displayed. When the

form in the Design window is highlighted, the visual properties and logical properties of the

form are displayed.

The Properties window allows you to set a control’s properties easily. Properties are a particular

object’s set of internal data; they usually describe appearance or behavior. In Figure 1-10 you

can see that properties are grouped together in categories — Accessibility (not shown),

Appearance (header is not shown), Behavior, Data, Design, Focus (not shown), Layout (not

shown), Misc (not shown), and Window Style (not shown).

You can see that under the Appearance category (header not shown), even though we changed the file

name of the form to

HelloUser.vb, the text or caption of the form is still Form1.

4. Right now, the title (Text property) of your form (displayed in the bar at the top) is Form1. This

is not very descriptive, so change it to reflect the purpose of this application. Locate the Text

property in the Appearance section of the Properties window. Change the Text property’s value

to Hello from Visual Basic 2005 and press Enter. Notice that the form’s title has been updated

to reflect the change.

If you have trouble finding properties, click the little AZ button on the toolbar toward the top of the

Properties window. This changes the property listing from being ordered by category to being ordered

by name.

5. You are now finished with the procedure. Click the Start button on the Visual Studio 2005 tool-

bar (the green triangle) to run the application. As you work through the book, whenever we say

“run the project” or “start the project,” just click the Start button. An empty window with the

title Hello from Visual Basic 2005 is displayed.

Chapter 1

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