Visual Basic Concepts

The Images Application

The form shown in Figure 3.18 uses four image controls, a shape control, a picture box, and a command button. When the user selects a playing card symbol, the shape control highlights the symbol and a description is displayed in the picture box. For a working version of this example, see Images.frm in the Controls.vbp sample application.

Figure 3.18 Image and shape control example

The following table lists the property settings for the objects in the application.

Object	Property	Setting
Picture box	Name Align	picStatus Bottom
First image control	Name Picture	imgClub Spade.ico
Second image control	Name Picture	imgDiamond Diamond.ico
Third image control	Name Picture	imgHeart Heart.ico
Fourth image control	Name Caption	imgSpade Spade.ico
Shape control	Name Shape BorderWidth Height Width	shpCard 4 - Rounded Rectangle 2 735 495
Command button	Name Caption	cmdClose &Close

Events in the Images Application

The Images application responds to events as follows:

The Click event in each of the image controls sets the Left property of the shape control equal to its own Left property, moving the shape on top of the image.
The Cls method of the picture box is invoked, clearing the current caption from the status bar.
The Print method of the picture box is invoked, printing the new caption on the status bar.

The code in the image control Click event looks like this:

Private Sub imgHeart_Click()
   shpCard.Left = imgClub.Left
   picStatus.Cls 
   picStatus.Print "Selected: Club"
   shpCard.Visible = True
End Sub

Note that the first line in the Click event code assigns a value (the Left property of the image control) to the Left property of the shape control using the = operator. The next two lines invoke methods, so no operator is needed. In the third line, the value ("Selected: Club") is an argument to the Print method.

There is one more line of code in the application that is of interest; it is in the Form Load event.

shpCard.Visible = False

By setting the Visible property of the shape control to False, the shape control is hidden until the first image is clicked. The Visible property is set to True as the last step in the image control Click event.

For More Information For additional information on properties, methods, and events see "Programming Fundamentals."