Soup to Nuts Lab 1: A Tour of Visual Studio.Net - Exercise 1: Create a Simple Windows Forms Application

Scenario

In this exercise, you will start up the Visual Studio IDE, and you will create a simple Windows Form application. You will also add controls to a form.

        Tasks              Detailed Steps

1. Start Visual Studio 2003.
   
   
   1. Click Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003.
      
2. Create a New Windows Forms Application Project
   
   Note: This is a dual-language lab intended for both C# and Visual Basic .NET. You can choose the language in which you want to code to complete the procedures. When you see the word language (for example, Visual <language> Projects), this indicates that the project can be either Visual C# Projects or Visual Basic Projects. Choose the language you are using, and then proceed.
   
   
   1. Click File and choose New | Project.
      
   2. Select Visual <language> Projects in the Project Types list.
      
   3. Choose Windows Application from the Templates list. 
      
   4. Type Northwind in the Name box. 
      
   5. Click OK.
      
      Visual Studio creates a new solution and a new Windows Forms project based on the template, and adds a Form1 class file, an AssemblyInfo class file, and some references to the project in the C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects folder, unless you change the Location: box.
      
      
3. Add a new form.
   
   
   1. Click View and choose Solution Explorer.
      
      If not already visible, the Solution Explorer pane becomes visible in the right-hand side of the IDE.
      
      
   2. In the Solution Explorer pane, right click Northwind project node, choose Add | Add Windows Form.
      
      The Add New Item dialog box displays.
      
   3. Type Customers in the Name box. 
      
   4. Click Open.
      
      Visual Studio creates a Customers form and adds it to the Northwind project, opening the new form in the forms designer.
      
      
4. Add some controls to the form.
   
   
   1. Click View and chose Toolbox.
      
      If not already visible, the Toolbox pane becomes visible in the left-hand side of the IDE.
      
      
   2. Drag a Label from the Toolbox and drop it onto the Customers form designer surface.
      
      The forms designer renders a label named Label1 on the Customers form. 
      
      
   3. Drag a TextBox from the Toolbox and drop it onto the Customers form designer surface.
      
      The forms designer renders a text box named TextBox1 on the Customers form. 
      
   4. Drag a Button from the Toolbox and drop it onto the Customers form designer surface.
      
      The forms designer renders a button named Button1 on the Customers form
      
      
   5. Using drag/drop, arrange the controls and size the form to look like the following form:
      
      Note:  forms and most controls have “handles” that when the object is selected, you can “grab” with the mouse in order to size them by left-clicking and holding with the mouse and dragging to size.
              
                      

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Next: Exercise 2 Using the Visual Studio .NET IDE Tools >>
 

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