101 Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET Applications

Application #44. Inherited Windows Forms

When designing an application that contains a large number of forms, it’s often desirable to keep those forms consistent. Using forms inheritance can help to ensure that cross-project consistency is attained. It can also cut down on development time during your initial development phase and while maintaining and enhancing the application. Because a form is really just a class, a base form can be designed that will serve as a basis for all the forms in an application. Logos, menus, and standard command buttons can be coded once and then propagated throughout an application with very little effort. This sample application, shown in Figure 4-28, will demonstrate how visual inheritance is used with Windows ...