USING FORMS

The Visual Basic Windows Form class is a descendant of the Control class. The inheritance trail is Control ⇒ ScrollableControl ⇒ ContainerControl ⇒ Form. That means a form is a type of control. Except where overridden, it inherits the properties, methods, and events defined by the Control class. In many ways, a form is just another kind of control like a TextBox or ComboBox.

At the same time, Forms have their own special features that set them apart from other kinds of controls. You usually place controls inside a form, but you rarely place a form inside another form. Forms also play a very central role in most Visual Basic applications. They are the largest graphical unit with which the user interacts directly. The user can minimize, restore, maximize, and close forms. They package the content provided by the other controls so that the user can manage them in a meaningful way.

This chapter describes some of the special features of Windows Forms not provided by other objects. It focuses on different ways that typical applications use forms. For example, it explains how to create shaped forms, build About dialog boxes, and set a form’s icon.

The chapter covers the Form object’s properties, methods, and events only in passing. For a detailed description of specific Form properties, methods, and events, see Appendix J, “Form Objects.”