Projects
This is a New project for your new execution, you will ALWAYS need a project for anything, VB adds one automatically, you can rename this to anything. Project files are very handy, they automatically load all your forms, modules, class modules etc...

Forms
These are the UI (User Interface) of your program, its also like a module (See below), but has some advantages/ disadvantages.

Modules
This is a template for your code, you can have as many as you want, and name them anything you want to. Why just use one form? because if you have lots of code, it would be a mission to find a certain part of code you need to work on, it's best to sort you code into different modules with an appropriate name.

Making your Execution
If you want to make an stand-alone execution, bring down the "File menu" and choose "Make xxxxx... .exe" (Where xxxxx is your project name). A message box will come up, choose Yes or Ok (I can't remember :p ) and you will see a blue progress bar at the top right rapidly (hopefully - if its a small program) saying "Compiling", this is exactly what it is doing, all your forms and/or modules and/or other files will compile into an execution in your project directory. If you get an error message, it would be an error in your code (it should highlight the problem).
NOTE: If you are using access you cannot compile executions!

Subs
Subs is an abbreviation for sub-procedures. It is structured like this:

Private Sub MySub()

End Sub

The "Private" part is the scope of that Sub.
The "Sub" part is telling VB that its a sub-procedure
The "MySub" part is the name of the sub-procedure
The "( )" part is used for arguments, more on the later, just ignore it for now.
The "End Sub" part is telling VB that that's the end of the sub-procedure.
The gap in the middle is where your code will go for that sub-procedure.

Subs are used for jobs to be done. when you type in something in a text box or click a button or move the mouse over something you can make a sub that is triggered by doing any of these. If you don't no the name of the sub or just to lazy to write it (like me), in the code form at the top, there will be a drop-down combo box with "(General)" in it, this is the "Objects List", if it's behind a form there will be a item called "Form" listed, click on this. Automatically VB will add a structured Sub like this:

Private Sub Form_Load()

End Sub

In this sub "Form_Load" it is obviously triggered off when the form is loaded. So you can put any code in that gap - you could put a message box in, trigger a game, update information to a secret spy service, make yellow monkey's jump across the screen and eat rotten banana's (the point is you can put anything you want!).

To the right of the "Object combo box" - there will be another with "Load", this combo box is a list of different triggers that you can choose form, like "Click" which will create a sub called "Form_Click" etc.
If you have an object in your form there will be other items listed in your "Object combo box" and for each the "Trigger options" will be different (Like when you have a boxing bag as an object, a "Trigger option" would be "Punch", but a different type of object may not have this option, like "PricelessGlassThingi").

If you want to make your own sub to do a job but is triggered off by "Calling" it. you would name it anything (name it related to its job) but without a "_" (underscore) in it, just in case it might clash with a object trigger. To call your own subs you would code it like this:

Call MySub

If it has arguments you would code it like this: (Worry about this later)

Call MySub("test")

Functions
A function is VERY handy. This is exactly like a sub except it returns a value. It is coded like this:

Private Function MySub() As Integer

End Sub

Very similar to a sub except at the end of the arguments ( "()" ) it has : "As Integer". It's a lot like dimensioning: the function name is like a dimension name and the "As integer" is telling VB what type of value it will hold - in this case a number from about -32 Thousand to 32 Thousand. The purpose of this is that you could pass in different arguments to retrieve a different value, here's the code on how you would use it:

If MySub = 5 then

Private Sub MySub()
'SET IT HERE

End Sub

Types
When you want to store data you have to tell the computer what sort of data to store (more on this in the dimensions section). Here is a summary of the main different types and what values they hold:

• Byte    -    a number from 0 to 255    -    (eg: 50)

• Integer    -    a number from about -32 Thousand to 32 Thousand    -     (eg: 4173)

• Long    -    a number from about -37 Million to 37 million    -    (eg: 451037)

• String    -    any amount of any characters in a quotation    -    (eg: "Hello!")

• Boolean    -    true or false    -    (eg: True)

• Variant    -    This special type can hold any type of data    -    (eg: "Hello!" or 2)

Storing Data
To make even a minor program you would most defiantly need to store data. Here is a case in which you would want to store data (Not code):

It is advised to use underscores and caps, and make the scoping public.

 
Yes that's right. It's going to be a login program!

Double click on your "OK" button. This will bring up the code form and set up a sub called "Command1_Click" or "Command2_Click". Type this:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim strUserInput As String

strUserInput = Me.Text1.Text
Retry:
         If strUserInput = "Loopy1034" then
                Call LogOn
        Else
                strUserInput = InputBox("Please try again, remember that it is case sensitive", "Invalid Password", strUserInput)
                GoTo Retry
        End If

End Sub

Woah! that's a lot of code for a first time! Lets dissect this sub: (Do not run the code until I tell you to)

Firstly the code is in a sub called "Command1_click" , so when the user clicks on the OK button it triggers the code inside the sub. (NOTE: your name of the OK button may not be Command1, it could be anything you change it to). The first thing we do is tell the computers memory to make space for a string: "Dim strUserInput As String".

Now as you will know we set a string value to our dimension: "strUserInput =" then we use our string value, the "Me" statement is a shortcut for "form1" (the name of our form), you can put any of them, you dont even need to put any of them if you want. The "."(Fullstop) parts just seperates the sentance. The "Text1" part is the textbox object we put on the form , and the "Text" is the option for that textbox - A value, in our case a password the user puts in.

Then we create a point called "Retry", a point is made when you put a ":" at the end of it. You will understand how this works soon.

Next we use the "If" statement, which is very straight forward. We are asking if strUserInput (the password) equals "Loopy1034" (The Actual password to logon - you can change this to what ever you want). I have Indented the code to make it easier to understand, inline with the "If" statement there is "Else" and "End If ", so if strUserInput does equal "Loopy1034" then it will read the code in the gap between the "If" and the " Else". But if strUserInput equals anything else, then read the code between the "Else" and the "End If"

So, if the password is incorrect, we would won't for the user to try again. So we querry them with an "InputBox" like this:

Now I'll explain how the code relates to this example if you haven't worked it out. VB has many handy functions, one of them is an "InputBox". So after "InputBox" theres a "(" (open bracket), the first part in the quotation marks is a prompt = "Please try again,remember that it is case sensitive ", then the second part is the title of the "InputBox": "Invalid Password",last value is the highlighted text in the textbox - strUserInput (the password to retype) and finally is finished with a ")" (closed bracket). We use this function as a string value and set it to the strUserInput dimension because it's now changed.

Once we have a new strUserInput value we want to check if it's the actual password ("Loopy1034"). To do so, we want to repeat those last few lines of code, so we use "GoTo" - which literally means Goto, then we put "Retry" - the pointer we created earlier ("Retry:"). So now we are asking the computer to go back to the top of the "If" statement to try the password check again. - Pretty straight forward stuff!

If the password is correct we want to logon, confirm, give the big "OK", Enter the gates, Dissconnect out of the Matrix, or whateva - I think we should just confirm for now :). Remember when I was explaining how subs work, if you want to create your own, for it to work you would need to call it. This is exactly what's happening, we are going to call a sub that we haven't created yet called "LogOn". by errrrm writing "Call Logon". Isn't this just so basic!

Now I want you to run the code, make sure you know the password, if you are cabbage or have a goldfish memory and forget the password even though it is staring you right in the face, Press "Crtl+Pause/Break" to pause the code, then press the stop button beside the play button.

Notice something crappy about our program. Firstly if you do get the password correct you will come up with a compile error saying "Sub or Function not defined". This is because we haven't made our "LogOn" sub yet, so no need to worry about that. The main problem is what if we didn't know the password but just wanted to get out of the stupid thing!, we are looping around forever until the user will get the right password (and what if you made it something like "MySmellyCatIs16andahalf_69"!). As a programmer you will always come accross unseen problems 1 million times worse than this, but you are just learning, so you need to be introduced to something unexpected.

So how do we tackle a problem like this!?, ask yourself what you need to do generally - not to detailed, then work into detail. So we need to Exit out of the program if the user presses cancel. I'm not sure if theres code to find out if the user presses cancel, I've never found anything on it, but when the user does press cancel it returns a value of nothing - "". We can use this as an indication that the user wants to quit. So just under "Else" put "If strUserInput = "" Then End" like this:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim strUserInput As String

strUserInput = Me.Text1.Text
Retry:
         If strUserInput = "Loopy1034" then
                Call LogOn
        Else
                        If strUserInput = "" Then End
                strUserInput = InputBox("Please try again, remember that it is case sensitive", "Invalid Password", strUserInput)
                GoTo Retry
        End If

End Sub

So if the password is incorrect then it is possible that the user pressed cancel, thats why we put it there. Now we can say: If strUserInput equals nothing then end the program by using the "End" function. Now run the code and press cancel (on the inputbox) and see for yourself!

Give yourself a pat on the back because you have just created your first functional sub procedure and understand it! (hopefully). Now lets finish it off with a confirm sub.

Below the sub you just created ("Command1_Click") write "Public Sub Logon" and press enter, VB will automatically set the rest up for you:

Public Sub LogOn()

End Sub

How could we confirm the logon? you can put anything you want in here. Lets do something simple like a message saying you have logged on. We will use another VB function called "MsgBox", simular to the "InputBox" but doesnt require input and can be used as a statement or a question, in our case we will use it as a statement. Type this:

Public Sub LogOn()

MsgBox "Welcome User", vbExclamation, "Logon Confirmed"
End

End Sub

Heres a summary of how the MsgBox works:
Msgbox  "Prompt" , BoxType , "Title"
Very easy stuff. Then as you would of noticed there is "End" below it to errrmmm, end the program.

Now just add another "End" function in the forms Cancel button to finish it off. YOUR DONE!!