The Windows Form is essential to a vital component in the development of any Windows -based application. Forms essentially provide the windows that make up a Windows application, in . In fact , the terms window and form are often used interchangeably. Forms allow the Visual Basic developer to create windows and layout controls (such as buttons, labels etc) in those forms to provide the application's user interface. In the next chapter ([[Designing Forms in Visual Basic]]) we will look at how to lay out controls inside a form. Before we reach that stage, however, there are many changes that can be made to the form itself using Visual Basic. We will cover these topics in this chapter.
== Creating In the next chapter ([[Designing Forms in Visual Basic]]) we will look at how to layout controls inside a New Form ==form. Before we reach that stage, however, there are a surprising number of ways in which the form itself can be modified and configured. We will cover these options in detail in this chapter.
Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project. Begin by starting Visual Studio and creating a new Windows Application project (see [[Creating a New Visual Basic Project]] for details of how to do this). Name the project ''VBforms''.
All objects in a Visual Basic application need a name so that they can be referenced in the code. When a new object is added to an application in Visual Studio it is assigned a default name which usually consists of the object type and a number. For example the first form object in an application is named ''Form1'', the second ''Form2'', and so on.
To change the name of a Form to something more meaningful simply click in any area of the Form in Visual Studio and change the ''(Name)'' value in the ''Properties'' panel.
Each form represents an application window. The text displayed in the title bar for each window should be changed to display something meaningful. This should eiher be the name of application, or a description of the form's function (for example ''Order Entry'' or ''Sales Report'').
The value of the text to be displayed in the window title is defined by the form's ''Text'' property. To change the title of the form, therefore, select the ''Text'' value in the Property panel and change it to a new value (for example, 'My Form Example').