Meeting the Tools in the Visual Basic Toolbox

When you write a Visual Basic program, you first have to design the user interface. Essentially, a Visual Basic user interface consists of objects that you place on the screen and arrange in some semblance of organization so that the screen looks pretty.

The common elements of a Visual Basic user interface appear in Figure 1 and consist of the following:

• Forms (also known as windows)

• Buttons (such as command buttons and radio buttons)

• Boxes (such as text boxes and check boxes)

• Labels

• Pictures (such as icons and graphics)

Figure 1: The elements of a typical Visual Basic user interface.

To design your user interface, follow these steps:

1. Create a form.

2. Choose the object you want to draw from the Toolbox. (See Table 1.)

3. Draw the object on the form.

Table 1: Tools in the Visual Basic Toolbox

Icon	Tool Name	What This Tool Does
	Pointer	Selects objects
	Picture box	Draws a box to display graphics
	Label	Draws a box to display text
	Text box	Draws a box that can display text and let the user type in text
	Frame	Groups two or more objects together
	Command button	Draws a command button
	Check box	Draws a check box
	Option (or radio) button	Draws a radio button
	Combo box	Draws a combo box
	List box	Draws a list box
	Horizontal scroll bar	Draws a horizontal scroll bar
	Vertical scroll bar	Draws a vertical scroll bar
	Timer	Places a timer on a form
	Drive list box	Draws a drive list box that displays all the disk drives available
	Directory list box	Draws a directory list box that displays a directory on a particular disk drive
	File list box	Draws a file list box that displays files in a specific directory
	Shape	Draws a geometric shape such as a circle or a square
	Line	Draws a line
	Image box	Draws a box to display graphics
	Data control	Draws a control to link a program to a database file
	OLE	Draws a box to insert an OLE object