Dr. Abraham Professor UTPA Graphical User Interface

Forms Forms used to create GUIs for programs and it is a container for controls and components. Active window has a highlighted title bar and It has the focus When a control or component is dragged onto the form, visual studio generates code for it and can be viewed. A programmer can write the code to place these controls as well. See the example of adding pictures I discussed in class.

Coding to add a button Friend WithEvents BtnMine As System.Windows.Forms.Button Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load BtnMine = New System.Windows.Forms.Button BtnMine.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(20, 20) BtnMine.Name = "BtnMine" BtnMine.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(75, 23) BtnMine.Text = "My Button" Controls.Add(BtnMine) End Sub

Code generated for picture box PictureBox1 = New PictureBox PictureBox1.Image = Global.windowsForms.My.Resources.Resources._1 Me.PictureBox1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(12, 51) Me.PictureBox1.Name = "PictureBox1" Me.PictureBox1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(74, 97) Me.AutoScaleDimensions = New System.Drawing.SizeF(6.0!, 13.0!) Me.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(284, 264) Me.Controls.Add(Me.PictureBox1)

Now look at the program I discussed in class ‘PictureName = InputBox("What is the Name of the Picture?", "Picture") PictureName = "C:\vb2008\addPictures\" + PictureName pictBox = New PictureBox Controls.Add(pictBox) pictBox.BringToFront() pictBox.Image = Image.FromFile(PictureName) pictBox.Top = offset pictBox.Width = 100 pictBox.Height = 100 pictBox.Left = offset offset = offset + 10

Change parameters in the code generated Example comment picture box location Add picturebox1.top Etc. You can learn coding for controls like this

Control Properties & Layout Tab Index Enabled – focus Anchor (remain at fixed distance from the sides) Docking (Attaches a control to a container) Labels, TextBoxes and Buttons. Password Textboxt box hides information typed. Checkboxes,comboboxes, and radio buttons Groupboxes and Panels to arrange controls and group them.

Keyboard & mouse Event Handling MouseEnter, MouseLeave, MouseDown, MouseUp, MouseMove, MovesHover KeyDown, KeyUp, KeyPress, KeyChar, Handled, Alt, Control, Shift, etc.

Rich Text Box Writing a text editor. File Opening and Reading Writing to File Drop Down Menus Context Sensitive Menus Changing Font attributes See demo

Other Features Splash Screen Check boxes and dropdown lists covered earlier Background color change Fade-in effect Button tricks See math game demo

Printing to Default Printer See demo