1. Lecture Set 2 Part B – Configuring Visual Studio; Configuration Options and The Help System (scan quickly for future reference)

2. Slide 2 Objectives Describe the Visual Studio IDE and configure Visual Studio for use with Visual Basic Intro to the Options Dialog Box Describe the organization of the Visual Studio Help system Navigate the Visual Studio Help system

3. Slide 3 Objectives (continued) Work with Visual Studio solutions and projects Explore the Visual Studio IDE and its windows Use Visual Studio to create and compile a Visual Basic project Create application comments and work with the My object

4. Slide 4 How to Approach this Lecture Set You will find that almost all options are set the way we want them to be So … don’t try to memorize or learn this material all at once For the options, just become familiar with the dialog boxes so that you have some idea where to find things and change the set up if you need to “Help” is a bit different – the more you use it, the more you investigate, the more you will learn and the more proficient you will become

5. Slide 5 Introduction to Visual Studio Visual Studio simplifies the process of creating, compiling, and testing applications Visual Studio can create applications in Visual C++, C#, J#, and Visual Basic The same development environment is used regardless of the programming language Here we provide some tips as to a reasonable, convenient configuration for your VS setup Visual Studio windows we will see and use 

6. Slide 6 Solution Explorer

7. Slide 7 Configuring Visual Studio for use with Visual Basic Visual Studio has extensive configuration options Use the Options dialog box to configure Visual Studio The Options dialog box has a drill down interface Click the plus (+) and minus (-) signs to expand or collapse the folders appearing in the left pane Configuration options appear in the right pane

8. Slide 8 Options Dialog Box – General Subfolder Use to set common environment options Use to set development modes Tabbed documents mode is the newer and preferred developer interface Multiple Document Interface (MDI) mode is the older developer interface It was used by VB 6 and older Visual Basic versions You should not have to deal with this box for a while

9. Slide 9 Options Dialog Box – General Subfolder

10. Slide 10 Options Dialog Box – Help Subfolder

11. Slide 11 Options Dialog Box – Build and Run subfolder These options control how Visual Basic compiles and executes a project Set thing up to provide reasonable level of information and, above all, to SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELF Before building, save all changes so that the most recent program version will be compiled when you do the build Always build projects before running

12. Slide 12 Options Dialog Box – Build and Run subfolder

13. Slide 13 Options Dialog Box – Basic General and Basic Tabs Subfolders Use to configure the Visual Basic editing environment Enable statement completion options to enable Intellisense technology Use smart indenting to indent program code automatically Enable the VB Specific options to enable other helpful editing features

14. Slide 14 Options Dialog Box – Basic, General Subfolder

15. Slide 15 Options Dialog Box – Basic, Tabs subfolder

16. Slide 16 Options Dialog Box – VB Specific subfolder

17. Slide 17 Introduction to the Visual Studio Help System The Help system encompasses Visual Studio The.NET Framework class library The different Visual Studio languages The Help system for the Visual Basic Express edition is simplified

18. Slide 18 Types of Help Pages Language Help pages relate to the statements that make up Visual Basic or other Visual Studio language Class Help pages describe the purpose of a class or other type Members Help pages list a type’s members, organized hierarchically Each category of Help page is made up of sections with common names Sections can be expanded or collapsed

19. Slide 19 Help Settings The Help system may be configured to use Online Help as the primary Help source Use online Help for the most up to date Help files Online Help will perform poorly with a dial-up Internet connection Local Help as the primary Help source and online Help as the backup Help source Local Help only

20. Slide 20 Online Help Settings Dialog Box

21. Slide 21 Language Help Pages Used to describe the purpose of a Visual Basic statement or other language element Sections Statement syntax describes the syntax of a language element The Parts section describes the syntax in detail The Remarks section contains technical and usage notes The Example section contains simple examples These examples can be copied and pasted into programs The See Also section contains links to other Help pages

22. Slide 22 Language Help Page

23. Slide 23 Members Help Pages Most classes (and other types) have a Members Help page Lists the members of the class or other type hierarchically by Property Method Event Each item has a link to another Help page

24. Slide 24 Console Members Help Page

25. Slide 25 Class Help Pages A Class Help page describes the purpose of a particular class Sections Syntax Remarks Example Inheritance Hierarchy Thread Safety Platforms Version Information See Also

26. Slide 26 Class Help Page for the System.Console Class

27. Slide 27 Class Help Pages (Syntax Section) The Syntax section shows the declaration for a class or other type The Syntax section contains keywords for the declaration Sample keywords Public denotes that the type is publicly accessible Class denotes the type is a class NotInheritable denotes the class cannot be inherited

28. Slide 28 Console Class Help Page – Syntax