DOCUMENT:Q161008  21-MAR-1997  [vbwin]
TITLE   :HOWTO: Add an About Box to an ActiveX Control (UserControl)
PRODUCT :Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
PROD/VER:5.0
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:kbusage vb5all vb5howto VBKBAX VBKBComp VBKBCtrl kbhowto

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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

 - Control Creation, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of
   Microsoft Visual Basic, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 5.0
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SUMMARY
=======

An ActiveX control typically exposes an About property to allow developers
to see extra information concerning the author of the control. Microsoft
Visual Basic Control Creation, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for
Windows, version 5.0 allow the creation of this About property for ActiveX
controls (UserControls) created in these editions of Visual Basic 5.0.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Step-by-Step Example
--------------------

1. Open your ActiveX Control project or start a new ActiveX Control
   project.

2. In the Project window, right-click your ActiveX control (UserControl)
   object. Click Add, and then click Form.

3. In the Professional and Enterprise Editions, double-click "About Dialog"
   in the list of form templates. In the Control Creation Edition, there is
   no "About Dialog" form template. Use the following steps instead:

   a. Double-click "Form" in the list of form templates.

   b. Change the Name of the form to "frmAbout" and the Caption to "About
      MyApp," where MyApp is the name of your application.

   c. Add a CommandButton control to the form and change its Caption to
      "OK" and its Default property to "True".

   d. Add the following code to the CommandButton control's Click event
      procedure:

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
         Unload Me
      End Sub

   e. Add other controls to the form to give it the appearance you desire.
      Label controls with the application's title, version, description,
      and disclaimers are common, as is a PictureBox control for
      displaying the application's icon and a CommandButton control for
      displaying "System Information."

4. In the Project window, right-click your ActiveX control (UserControl)
   object. Click View Code and add the following code to your ActiveX
   control (UserControl):

      Sub ShowAboutBox()
         frmAbout.Show vbModal
         Unload frmAbout
         Set frmAbout = Nothing
      End Sub

5. From the Tools menu, click Procedure Attributes.

6. Select the ShowAboutBox procedure in the Name field, and then click
   "Advanced>>."

7. Select AboutBox from the Procedure ID field and click OK.

8. Close all of the windows for the ActiveX control (UserControl) project.
   This will put the control in run mode.

9. Add a "Standard EXE" project (using Add Project in the File menu) and
   place the ActiveX control (UserControl) on the form. The About property
   is shown in the control's property list. If you click on the ellipses
   for this property, the frmAbout dialog box appears.

REFERENCES
==========

Microsoft Visual Basic Books Online:
"Component Tools Guide," "Creating ActiveX Components," "Building ActiveX
Controls," "Visual Basic ActiveX Control Features," "Adding an AboutBox to
Your Control"

Additional query words: AboutBox
======================================================================
Keywords            : kbusage vb5all vb5howto VBKBAX VBKBComp VBKBCtrl kbhowto
Technology          : kbole
Version             : 5.0
Platform            : WINDOWS
Issue type          : kbhowto

=============================================================================

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