Conventions and Features in This Book

Conventions and Features in This Book

Before you start the exercises in this book, you can save time by understanding how I provide instructions and the elements I use to communicate information about Visual Basic programming. The following lists identify stylistic conventions, discuss helpful features of the book, and point out a few elements that are especially useful for readers who plan to upgrade Visual Basic 6 applications to Visual Basic 2005.

Conventions

• The names of all program elements—controls, objects, methods, functions, properties, and so on—appear in italic.

• Hands-on exercises for you to follow are given in numbered lists of steps (1, 2, and so on). A round bullet (●) indicates an exercise that has only one step.

• Text that you need to type appears in bold.

• As you work through steps, you'll occasionally see tables with lists of properties that you'll set in Visual Studio. Text properties appear within quotes, but you don't need to type the quotes.

• A plus sign (+) between two key names means that you must press those keys at the same time. For example, “Press Alt+Tab” means that you hold down the Alt key while you press Tab.

• Elements labeled Note, Tip, More Info, or Important provide additional information or alternative methods for a step. You should read these before continuing with the exercise.

Other Features

• You can learn special programming techniques, background information, or features related to the information being discussed by reading the sidebars that appear throughout the chapters. These sidebars often highlight difficult terminology or suggest future areas for exploration.

• You can learn about options or techniques that build on what you learned in a chapter by trying the One Step Further exercise at the end of that chapter.

• You can get a quick reminder of how to perform the tasks you learned by reading the Quick Reference at the end of a chapter.

Upgrading Visual Basic 6 Programs

• The Upgrading Index, located before the comprehensive index, lists in one place the major differences between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic 2005 and provides page citations to information in the book about these differences.

• “Upgrade Notes” sidebars, near the beginning of each chapter, provide a basic overview, or executive summary, of the features in Visual Basic 2005 for Visual Basic 6 users. Use these sidebars if you're interested in how Visual Basic has changed in the context of an individual topic, such as variable declaration, Toolbox controls, or database programming. (Readers upgrading from Visual Basic .NET 2002 or 2003 to Visual Basic 2005 are welcome to review these notes as well, but moving to Visual Basic 2005 will be easier for you.)