Using the Visual Basic 2008 Start Page

By default, the Visual Basic 2008 Start Page, shown in below Figure, is the first thing you see when you start Visual Basic.

The Visual Basic 2008 Start Page is a gateway for performing tasks with Visual Basic. From this page, you can open previously edited projects, create new projects, and get help. The Start Page consists of three category boxes. The Recent Projects category in the upper-left corner is used to create new projects or open projects already created. To create new projects, click the Create: Project link in the Recent Projects category. This opens the New Project dialog box, shown in below Figure:

The Templates list varies from machine to machine, depending on which products of the Visual Studio .NET family are installed. Of course, we're interested in only the Visual Basic Project types in this tutorial.

When you create a new project, be sure to enter a name for it in the Name text box before clicking OK or double-clicking a Templates icon. This ensures that the project is created with the proper path and filenames, eliminating work you would otherwise have to do to change these values later. After you specify a name, you can create the new project. Either double-click the icon that represents the Template type of project you want to create, or click the template icon to select it and then click OK. After you've performed either of these actions, the New Project dialog box closes, and a new project of the selected type is created.

When you first create a project, the project files are virtual they haven't been saved to the hard drive. When you click Save or Save All for the first time, you are prompted to specify a path in which to save the project. The name you give your project is used as its folder name by default, but the path chosen depends on the last project you created. If you're on a team of developers, you might choose to locate your projects on a shared drive so that others can access the source files.

After you enter a project name and click OK, Visual Basic creates the project. Again, nothing is saved to the hard drive until you click Save or Save All on the toolbar.

Over time, you'll open existing projects more often than you create new ones. There are essentially two ways to open projects from the Visual Studio Start Page:

• If it's a project you've recently opened, the project name appears in the Recent Projects category toward the upper-left corner of the Start Page. Because the name displayed for the project is the one given when it was created, it's important to give your projects descriptive names. Clicking a project name opens the project. I'd venture to guess that you'll use this technique 95% of the time.

• To open a project for the first time (such as when opening sample projects), click the Open Project link on the Visual Basic 2008 Start Page. This displays a standard dialog box that you can use to locate and select a project file.