Example of Sharing a Form Between Projects in VB for Windows

ID: Q81222

The information in this article applies to:

Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, versions 2.0 and 3.0
Microsoft Visual Basic programming system for Windows, version 1.0

SUMMARY

Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows allows you to share forms between projects. When you make a change to a shared form in one project, that change will be automatically updated in the other projects that share the form.

A workaround is also available if you want to change a shared form but do not want to update the form in other projects.

Further below is an example of how to use this shared form feature in Visual Basic for Windows, and an example of how to change a shared form without updating it in shared projects.

MORE INFORMATION

Below are two examples: the first shows how to update shared forms, and the second demonstrates how to change a shared form without having those changes affect the same form in other projects.

Example 1

Run Visual Basic for Windows, or from the File menu, choose New Project (press ALT, F, N) if Visual Basic for Windows is already running. Form1 is created by default.

Add a couple text boxes and command buttons to Form1 by double-clicking the appropriate tools in the toolbox and placing the controls at certain locations on the form. From the Properties Bar, change the FormName property of Form1 to Test1.

From the File menu, choose Save Project As. Save Test1 as TEST1.FRM and save the project as TEST1.MAK.

Start a new project by choosing New Project from the File menu.

From the File menu, choose Add File, and select TEST1.FRM.

Once TEST1.FRM is loaded into the project, delete the command buttons, and replace them with picture boxes.

From the File menu, choose Save Project As. Save the project as TEST2.MAK, and save TEST1.FRM with the same name.

From the File menu, choose Open Project. In the Files box, select TEST1.MAK.

Notice that the form has been updated to include picture boxes and the command buttons were deleted.

Example 2

The following steps are very similar to the example above but with a change in step 5.

This example demonstrates how to share forms between projects, but with the forms being designed differently.

Run Visual Basic for Windows, or from the File menu, choose New Project (press ALT, F, N) if Visual Basic for Windows is already running. Form1 is created by default.

Add a couple text boxes and command buttons to Form1 by double-clicking the appropriate tools in the toolbox and placing the controls at certain locations on the form. From the Properties Bar, change the FormName property of Form1 to Test3.

From the File menu, choose Save Project As. Save Test3 as TEST3.FRM and save the project as TEST3.MAK.

From the File menu, choose New Project.

From the File menu, choose Add File. In the Files box, select TEST3.FRM. Once the file is loaded, delete the command buttons and replace them with picture boxes.

From the File menu, choose Save File As, and save the form as TEST4.FRM.

From the File menu, choose Save Project As, and save the project as TEST4.MAK.

From the File menu, choose Open Project. In the Files box, select TEST3.MAK.

Notice that the form's controls have NOT been updated with picture boxes.

Additional query words: 2.00 3.00

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