Peter Norton's Guide to Visual Basic 6
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Peter Norton
ISBN: 0672310546
Publication Date: 09/09/98

About the Authors

Computer software entrepreneur and writer Peter Norton established his technical expertise and accessible style from the earliest days of the PC. His Norton Utilities was the first product of its kind, giving early computer owners control over their hardware and protection against myriad problems. His flagship titles, Peter Norton’s DOS Guide and Peter Norton’s Inside the PC (Sams Publishing) have provided the same insight and education to computer users worldwide for nearly two decades. Peter’s books, like his many software products, are among the best-selling and most-respected in the history of personal computing.

Peter Norton’s former column in PC Week was among the highest-regarded in that magazine’s history. His expanding series of computer books continues to bring superior education to users, always in Peter’s trademark style, which is never condescending nor pedantic. From their earliest days, changing the “black box” into a “glass box,” Peter’s books, like his software, remain among the most powerful tools available to beginners and experienced users, alike.

In 1990, Peter sold his software development business to Symantec Corporation, allowing him to devote more time to his family, civic affairs, philanthropy, and art collecting. He lives with his wife, Eileen, and two children in Santa Monica, California.

Michael Groh is an author, writer, and consultant specializing in Windows database systems. His company, PC Productivity Solutions, Inc., provides information management applications to companies across the country. He has authored parts of more than 20 different computer books and is a frequent contributor to computer magazines and journals. He frequently speaks at computer conferences around the United States, provides Access and Visual Basic training for Application Developers Training Company, and is technical editor of Access / Office / Visual Basic Advisor, a publication of Advisor Publications.

Dedication

My work on this book project is dedicated to Matt Watson, a young boy living in Belleview, a small town here in north-central Florida. On February 24, 1998 three-year-old Matt suffered burns over 77% of his body in a tragic incident in his home. After four months at the Cincinnati Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, Matt is back in Florida facing a long regimen of physical and medical therapy. I’ve never met Matt, but he obviously faces a long, hard road ahead.

You can read Matt’s story at
http://www.starbanner.com/Headliners/Watson060798.html

Matt and his family need all the help they can get. I’m pledging my share of the royalties and advance from this book to the Matt Watson fund. You can help, too.

Matt Watson Fund
c/o AmSouth Bank
10715 South US Highway 441
Belleview, FL 34420

—Michael Groh

Acknowledgements

This book, like so many others, is the product of a team of people working behind the scenes. I’d like to take a minute to acknowledge and thank those who pitched in to push this project over the finish line.

First of all, thank you to Matt Wagner and Karen Shaheen, my team at Waterside Productions. Without Karen’s frequent phone calls and email burning up the lines between Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California and Ocala, Florida I’d probably still be working on the Introduction to this book.

The Sams editorial staff was great to work with. Bryan Gambrel’s guidance, suggestions, and supervision set the pace throughout this project. Bryan formulated the original concept and made many suggestions for the topics covered in this book.

As usual, there are too many editors, production staff, and other people involved at Sams to count them all. My special thanks to Tonya Simpson and Jodi Jensen for their hard work on this project.

My new friend Nancy Warner deserves special attention for her ongoing editing, organizing, and reminding tasks. Nancy did a great job of keeping me informed of this project’s priorities and due dates.

And, of course, a big thank you to the Visual Basic experts who contributed several chapter elements of this book. First of all, my friend and associate James Foxall pitched in with Chapter 22, “Integrating with Internet Explorer.” James dug into his considerable experience working with IE and came with up a terrific chapter.

I don’t where Lowell Mauer gets his writing skill, but he produced Chapters 2, 13, 14, 16, 17, 27, and 28 in record time. I appreciate his generosity sharing his considerable Visual Basic experience on this project.

My new friend Tyson Gill did a terrific job on Chapters 5, “Designing the User Interface,” 6, “Putting Your Forms to Work with Controls,” and 7, “Mastering Menus and Toolbars.”

I was lucky to have Michael Carnell available to produce Chapters 23, “Web Development with Visual Basic 6,” and 24, “Creating Intranet Applications.” The Internet is a fast-moving topic and requires special attention to document properly.

James Ralston (Chapter 18, “Mastering Jet DAO”) and Mark Baciak (Chapter 19, “Using Advanced Data Access Methods”) share their extensive database experience in their respective chapters. I appreciate all the work my writing team has done on this book!

Further thanks to Visio Corporation (www.visio.com) for its generous gift of a copy of Visio Technical. This product was used to produce many of the drawings you see in this book.

Finally, a special thank you to Peter Norton. I bought his original Inside the IBM PC book more than 15 years ago and still have it on my bookshelves. Peter Norton was the first person to explain that complex new com-puter using words that I could understand. His early book and magazine work formed the basis of much of my enthusiasm and understanding of desktop computers and software. As a long-time fan it has been a thrill to participate in a Peter Norton book project.

Tell Us What You Think!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you’re willing to pass our way.

As the Executive Editor for the Programming team at Macmillan Computer Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can fax, email, or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—as well as what we can do to make our books stronger.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author as well as your name and phone or fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.