how to use Visual Studio 2008 IDE

The IDE

Now that you have finished choosing and downloading a VS IDE, we can now start discussing the parts of the IDE itself. So start up the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition from your Start > All Programs Menu, and you will have an Application similar to the image below

On the IDE, the Start Page shows your recent saved projects and news about Express Edition (if you used Express Edition). If you want, you can register your copy of Express Edition (click Help > Register Product on the main menu) for you to have access to samples and kits from Microsoft.

Now, create a New C# Project by pressing Ctrl+N or Selecting File > New Project on the main menu, the New Project dialog box will appear (see image below). This dialog box lets you choose the template (type of project you want to make) and enter an application name for the new project. Just make sure the Windows Forms Application is selected, then enter any application name you want (I left it with the default name), if you are sure with the name, click Ok.

The IDE seemed to have not changed at all, but if you look at the tabs and the right-side of the IDE, you now have Form1.cs [design] on the tab, and the Solution Explorer and Properties Windows on the right (highlighted with red borders on the image). Select the Form1.cs tab to be able to see the how the form looks like.

Clicking the toolbox tab on the left side of the IDE expands the toolbox window and clicking the pin icon causes it to dock (see image below). The toolbox is a complete set of controls that you can drag and drop on your created windows form (also seen on the image)

Now that the Toolbox is out and shown on our IDE, we can now start using different controls on our windows form.

Form Controls

Now we will now try to learn and discuss ways on putting controls on our windows form, let’s start with a couple of basic form controls, so click on Common Controls tab on the Toolbox window to show some controls we can use.

To add a control, you can either select it from the toolbox, drag and drop on the form or double-click it and it will automatically be added on your form. So, lets try and add 3 labels, 3 textboxes, and a button on Form1 by double-clicking the controls the Toolbox.