VB6 IDE -II

Last time we had a look on the VB 6 IDE. Let us continue this discussion in this article. Today we are going to take a look at the project explorer which forms an integrated and very important part of the VB 6 interface.

The Project Explorer in Visual Basic 6 helps you manage and navigate multiple projects. Visual Basic enables you to organize multiple projects into groups called project groups. You can save the collection of projects in your Visual Basic session into a project group file. Project Group files end with the extension .vbg.

The Project Explorer is a hierarchical tree-branch structure. Projects are at the top of the tree, and the project parts descend from the tree. If you want to work on a particular part, you double-click the part to display it. If you want to see the part in a particular view--say, a form in a Code window--you select the form by clicking it once. Then click the View Code icon at the top of the Project Explorer window.

As you become a more adept programmer and the scope and size of your programs grow to include multiple projects, you'll find the Project Explorer to be an extremely useful tool for doing large-scale programming. For example, if want to add a form to your project, you can do so by using the Project Explorer.

Add a form from the Project Explorer

1. Position the pointer on the white area of the Project window (not over a form or any other item on the tree view).

2. Right-click to display the Project Explorer context menu.

3. Choose Add and then Form.

VB6 IDE can be viewed in either MDI (Multi Document Interface) or SDI (Single Document Interface). MDI view shows all the distinct windows of the Visual Basic IDE as member windows within one large IDE window

In the SDI view, distinct windows of the Visual Basic IDE exist independently of each other. There's no master window to contain and provide a unified feel to the IDE. Some people who've worked with previous versions of Visual Basic find working with the IDE in an SDI view a little bit easier in that it's similar to the earlier versions' environment; others find the unified layout of the MDI environment more appealing. There's no better or worse way; it's all a matter of work style.

Change from MDI view to SDI view

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. The Options

The copyright of the article VB6 IDE -II in Learning Visual Basic is owned by Swapna Kamat. Permission to republish VB6 IDE -II in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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