Tips on making your app look good

[RDCA]

Well I am a pretty good vb coder. So one thing I learned over a year is that looks can sell. If your app looks good to the eye, it looks more professional, but if you have buttons every were, un-even sizes of similar objects it can look really bad.

Some things I plan on including:

• Form Border
  
• Spacing/ Sizing
  
• Dotnetbar
  
• Skin Crafter
  
• MouseEnter/Leave
  
• vb themes
  
• Extras
  

Well there are a variety of techniques to make your application look good. So I am going to keep this thread updated even if it dies, unlike my last one. So for now I am going to start off with borders of the form.

Borders

Borders on the form can make an application look totally different.
Well to get started lets define what a border is and the different types:

A border is line that surrounds your client rectangle.
It looks like a bluish line.
So there are different kinds of these:

• None
  
• FixedSingle
  
• Fixed3D
  
• FixedDialog
  
• Sizable
  
• FixedToolWindow
  
• SizableToolWindow
  

See here is a brief explanation of each one:

None- This is when the form has no border, just the client rectangle. Some things to think about when using a border less form is that there is no exit, maximize, movable, or minimize-able options. These can all be self added. Also these forms have very nice looks when used as a second form, like a credits or help form. These are my personal favorite since it is so customizable. I will go over that a little bit later.




FixedSingle- This is when the form can't be resized, also there is only a single line for a border. For this tutorial I made the inside clear so you guys can see the inside better:




Fixed3D- This cannot be resized either, but as you can see in the picture the border is a little bit bigger and there is a inner drop shadow onto the
client rectangle.


FixedDialog- This is pretty much the same as the fixed single border, except this one has a real border.




Sizable- This is the same as the fixed dialog except that this border is re sizable.




FixedToolWindow- This form is a bit different then the rest, it is a fixed border, but is more squared than the rest of the edges, also it only has one exit mark, and no minimize button or maximize.




SizableToolWindow- This is the same as above but the border is re-sizable.

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Themes

credits to aeonhack- Modern, Pearl, and Electron Themes



http://pastie.org/934876
http://pastebin.com/ZGfDx9vc

Visual Studio Theme

http://pastebin.com/4Q9gXqkh

Future Theme

http://pastebin.com/PP6JtACR

Bullion Theme

http://pastebin.com/KWn7KTJD

Fusion Theme

http://pastebin.com/Fe63tSUB

Genuine Theme

http://pastebin.com/XkQPsFSm

Implementation
1.) Create or open an existing VB application.
2.) Add a new class to your project.
3.) Replace all of the code inside the new document with the appropriate code.
4.) Build your project; if you don't build the controls they won't be in your toolbox.
5.) Drag n' drop!

Setup Video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTAwRHobmHI[/youtube]

Extra:

How to make a no form application be able to move:
Just copy and paste this into your app:

Code:

#Region " Global Variables "
    Dim Point As New System.Drawing.Point()
    Dim X, Y As Integer
#End Region

#Region " GUI "
    Private Sub Main_MouseMove(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles MyBase.MouseMove
        If e.Button = MouseButtons.Left Then
            Point = Control.MousePosition
            Point.X = Point.X - (X)
            Point.Y = Point.Y - (Y)
            Me.Location = Point
        End If
    End Sub
    Private Sub Main_MouseDown(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles MyBase.MouseDown
        X = Control.MousePosition.X - Me.Location.X
        Y = Control.MousePosition.Y - Me.Location.Y
    End Sub

#End Region

Skin Crafter:

Some things you will need:
skin crafter, download link 'Here

Ok now follow these steps:

• Install the .msi windows installer
  
• Open up your visual basic studio
  
• Go to toolbox at "Data" and right click and then click at "Choose Items..."
  
• Select browse
  
• Copy and paste the location
  • C:\Program Files\SkinCrafter3\SkinCrafterDemo\SkinCrafterDLL
• Press ok

Now in the data tab in the toolbox you should see skin crafter.
Now drag it onto your form.
No go to the properties of it.
And now chose one: