What is the IDE?

Visual Basic Version: All

Issue: What is the IDE?

The IDE is the Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment. It is where you design your forms and write your code. When you launch Visual Basic, you are launching the IDE.

IDE Tips

Visual Basic Version: VB 5.0, VB 6.0

Issue: Give me some basic IDE tips!

Here are some general IDE tips:

• Use templates: You can create templates for any type of module, forms, classes, and so on. You can then save these to the predefined templates directory. The template will then automatically appear in the appropriate Add dialog box. For example, your form templates will appear in the Add Form dialog box. By using templates you can reuse a dialog box look for every form in your project or reuse standard properties and methods in every class.
• Use multiple tabs in the toolbox: You can add tabs to your toolbox to divide your controls into logical groupings. This makes it easier to find and work with your controls, especially if you have a lot of them in your toolbox.
• Use comment block/uncomment block: These features allow you to comment out large sections of code and later remove the comments. This is useful when debugging sections of code.
• Edit menu information in the Properties window: You can now use the Properties window to edit menu information instead of opening the Menu editor. You still need to use the Menu editor to create the menu originally, but then you can update any menu information using the Properties window.
• Add your documentation to your project: Use the Add File option in the Project menu to add other files, such as documentation to your project. You can then edit these files directly from the IDE and save these associated files with the project.
• Use Option Explicit: In Tools | Options, check "Require Variable Declaration". This will cause "Option Explicit" to be added to each new code module you add to your project, including forms, classes, and any other type of code module. With Option Explicit set, you must declare your variables. This prevents variable misspellings from causing logic errors in your application.
• Turn off Auto Syntax Check: In Tool | Options you can turn off Auto Syntax Check. VB will still mark your edits with red if they are not valid, but will not interrupt you with an irritating message box every time you have a syntax error.

How do I close all windows for a project?

Visual Basic Version: VB 5.0, VB 6.0

Issue: Now that I can work with multiple projects in the IDE, the IDE can get messy. How can I close all of the open designer and code windows for a project?

Simply click on the project in the Project window to contract it and all of the associated project designer and code windows will be closed.

How do I prevent Add-Ins from loading?

Visual Basic Version: VB 4.0 (16-bit and 32-bit), VB 5.0

Issue: When Visual Basic starts up, it launches any active Add-Ins. If there is an error in one of the Add-Ins, VB could GPF.

Here are the instructions for turning off Add-Ins before launching Visual Basic.

1.Use a text editor such as Notepad.exe or WordPad.exe.

2.Edit the VBAddin.INI file in your Windows directory and set all of the entries to zero (0). For example:

- Original: AppWizard.Wizard=1
- Modified: AppWizard.Wizard=0

3.Save VBAddin.INI.

4.Start Visual Basic.

If you want to turn off Add-Ins when you are already in Visual Basic, use the Add-In Manager from the Add-Ins menu.