# Visual Introduction to Gambas

- Visual Introduction to Gambas
  - Startup Dialog
    - New Project
    - Open Project
    - Recent Projects
    - Gambas Version
    - Gambas Welcome Crawl and License (GNU GPL)
    - Quit Gambas
  - Gambas Windows
    - Project Explorer
      - Menus
      - Tool Buttons
      - Your Classes
      - Your Forms
      - Your Modules
      - Other Files in Your Project
      - Status Bar
    - Form Being Edited
      - Currently Selected Control
    - Properties of Currently Selected Control
    - Gambas Code Editor
    - Tool Box
      - Selection Tool
      - Other Tools

## Startup Dialog

### New Project

Brings up the New Project dialog, where you're prompted for the name of your new project and a directory to put it in. Unlike Visual Basic(tm) projects, Gambas projects consist of all the files in a particular directory and the project's name is the name of the directory.

### Open Project

Brings up the Open Project dialog, where you can browse for a project directory and open the project in Gambas for editing.

### Recent Projects

Opens a list of recently edited Gambas projects.

### Gambas Version

The version and development status of Gambas.

### Gambas Welcome Crawl and License (GNU GPL)

Animated crawl which welcomes you to Gambas and informs you of your rights under the GNU General Public License, or GPL: namely, that Gambas is free software.

### Quit Gambas

Quits Gambas without opening any projects.

## Gambas Windows

### Project Explorer

The main Gambas window. Shows a tree-like list of the types of files in your project (class, form, module, and others) and allows you to perform most Gambas operations, like opening and saving projects, building executables, running and debugging, and showing or hiding the various Gambas dialogs shown on this page.

#### Menus

These menus control all the main Gambas tasks mentioned above.

#### Tool Buttons

The tool buttons provide single-click access to the most common menu items. Hovering over one will give you a tooltip that tells you what menu action it will perform.

#### Your Classes

Lists the Classes you've created for your project. Classes are basically templates that can be used to make objects out of at runtime, with code to define properties, methods and event handlers for each object you create from them.

#### Your Forms

Lists the Forms you've created for your project. Forms are the windows the user actually interacts with.

#### Your Modules

Lists the modules you've written for your project. Modules are simply sets of subroutines and functions to be used anywhere in your program. Unlike classes, you can't make objects out of them at runtime and they have no event handlers.

#### Other Files in Your Project

You can add any other kind of file to your project: graphic files like icons or bitmaps, text or HTML files, even media files (though as of Gambas 0.60 there's no way to actually play them back.)

#### Status Bar

Indicates what Gambas is currently doing.

### Form Being Edited

If you double click on a form in the Project Explorer, it'll pop up for you to edit. Creating and editing forms are a matter of selecting what type of control you'd like to place, and then drawing it on your form. Right clicking on the form or any of its children (controls) will show you a pop-up menu allowing you to perform operations on the object, edit its properties or delete it.

#### Currently Selected Control

When editing a form, the currently selected control is indicated by four black squares called handles. Clicking on a handle and dragging will allow you to resize the control, or right click on it for the pop-up operations menu. Double clicking on the control will pop the editor window up on any existing event handler for the control, or a default event handler if there aren't any already.

### Properties of Currently Selected Control

Shows a list of properties you can change in design mode, and allows you to change them.

### Gambas Code Editor

In this window, you write the code to handle events for the controls you've placed on your form.

### Tool Box

Contains all the controls you can drop on a Gambas form, from labels and text boxes to LCD numbers and timers.

#### Selection Tool

The only item in the toolbox that isn't actually a control. The selection tool simply gives you the plain pointer back, with which you can select and operate on forms and their controls.

#### Other Tools

- Label
- Image
- TextLabel
- ProgressBar
- Button
- CheckBox
- RadioButton
- ToggleButton
- TextBox
- ComboBox
- TextArea
- ListBox
- ListView
- TreeView
- IconView
- GridView
- ColumnView
- Frame
- Panel
- TabStrip
- ScrollView
- DrawingArea
- Timer
- GambasEditor
- LCDNumber
- Dial
- SpinBox
- ScrollBar
- Slider
- TableView
- Splitter
- Workspace