Useful Thoughts and Actions Taken

If you are receiving errors about an ocx file, registering the file may solve the problem. To register an ocx file simply follow the simple steps below.

• 1.Locate the file using windows explorer or My Computer. Alternatively search for the filename.
• 2.Hold down the shift key and right click on the file. Then click 'Open With…' from the menu.
• 3.An 'Open With' dialog box should appear. Click the button 'Other…'.
• 4.Navigate to your windows\system32 directory and select the file 'RegSvr32.exe'. Do a file search for it if you have trouble locating the exact folder. On Windows 2000 it is typically located in c:\WINNT\System32. Click Open to select the file. Then click OK on the 'Open With' dialog.
• 5.You should see a message indicating the file was successfully registered. If you see an error message, try restarting your computer and going through the above process again.

First Phase is always looking for example code to allow untangling very poorly written explanations.

• Sample Active X Control at VisualBasicBooks
• Developing Windows Forms Controls at Design Time
• VB ActiveX control examples
• Planet Source Code
• vb-helper.com
• MSDN
• StartVBdotNet  – step by step with mention of inheritance at the end
• Creating a Visual Basic Custom Control

Variable Visibility

You can pass variables / objects back and forth between a Visual Basic Form and a UserControl.  This archive has source code showing you how to do this:

     Scribble.zip 

You can make properties for the following things: Forms, UserControls and Class Modules. Basically any element that will behave as an object.

When to use properties?

Properties are handy when you want to generalize your code: if you're changing a setting of something, it might be better to create it as a property. Especially if you might have a need to get a return value as well. The property code can then do some additional stuff, such as switching form's menu items automatically to correct value, so you don't need to do it from whereever you set the property.

Property Passing

This accesses a property of the Custom Control

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