Summary

This chapter discusses some of the common controls that you might want to use in your programs. It shows that many of the different controls share common properties, such as Text , Location , Size , and Visible . By adding new features to a sample program, you have learned how controls' properties and methods work.

This chapter does not list or discuss all the controls that Visual Basic .NET makes available. Many of the Visual Basic .NET controls are discussed in the chapters where you actually use them. Discussion about database controls, file processing dialog boxes, picture boxes, and similar controls are deferred to the chapters where you can use them in sample programs. This will better help you learn how these controls work than would simply listing them all in this chapter.

As you gain more experience, you might say to yourself, "I wish this control could. " In such cases, the first thing you should do is read the online help for the control to see if there is already some existing property or method that you might be able to use. If the feature you want is not available, you can use inheritance to add the feature because virtually every object in Visual Basic .NET is derived from the System object. Using inheritance to enhance existing Visual Basic .NET controls is a real benefit, and it is the subject of Chapter 21, "Creating Your Own Controls."