Learning the outs and ins of the Development Environment before you learn visual basic is somewhat like learning for a test you must know where all the functions belong and what their purpose is and first we will start with labelling the development environment.

Some programmers prefer the Categorisized view of the properties window and by defaulting, the properties window displays its properties alphabetically (with the exception of the name value) when you click on the categorized button the window changes to left picture.

When we start Visual Basic, we are provided with a VB project and a VB project is a collection of the following files and modules.

• The global module( that contains procedures and declaration)
• The form module(that contains the graphic elements of the VB application and the instruction )
• The general module (that generally contains general-purpose instructions and not pertaining to anything graphic on-screen)
• The class module(that contains the defining characteristics of a class, including its methods and properties)
• The resource files(that allows you to collect all of the texts and bitmaps for an application in to one place)

• The Properties window
• The Project window
• The Blank Form window

You may have noticed that when you click on different controls the Properties Window changes slightly this is due to different controls having different functions and therefore more options are needed for example if you had a picture then you want to show an image. But if you wanted to open a internet connection you would have to make settings and fill in the remote host. When you use the command button() you will find that a new set of properties come up and the following will provide a description and a property.

It time to make your own application from looking at the examples .At first,choose 'New Project' from the 'File' menu and then use the blank form1 to design a simple interface for an estate agents database, have some textboxes for names and other details. Insert some controls and make it look professional and then textboxes can be used to store there name and other details, make sure you put a picture box in for a picture of the house.Then insert the following source code for your application.

Once an application is loaded and then it can be run by clicking on the icon from the toolbar, to pause press and to terminate use .

Once a project is loaded, the name of the form(s) that it contains is displayed in the project window and to view a form in design mode, select the form required by clicking with the mouse to highlight its name, then clicking on the view form button.