Hour 7. Working with Traditional Controls

What You'll Learn in This Hour:

• Displaying static text with the Label control

• Allowing users to enter text using a text box

• Creating password fields

• Working with buttons

• Using panels, group boxes, check boxes, and option buttons

• Displaying lists with list boxes and combo boxes

The previous two hours described how to work with forms in considerable detail. Forms are the foundation of a user interface but are pretty much useless by themselves. To create a functional interface, you need to use controls. Controls are the various widgets and doo-dads on a form with which users interact. Dozens of different types of controls exist, from the simple Label control used to display static text to the more complicated Tree View control used to present trees of data like those found in Explorer. In this hour, I'll introduce you to the most common (and simple) controls, which I call traditional controls. In Hour 8, "Using Advanced Controls," you'll learn about the more advanced controls that you can use to create professional-level interfaces.