Access the POWER of the ODBC API

A FAWCETTE TECHNICAL PUBLICATION, JANUARY 1995 VOL. 5, NO. 1,

INCLUDES WINDOWS PROGRAMMING & VISUAL PROGRAMMING
R

P R O G R A M M E R S

USE

SHRINKWRAP
AS BUILDING BLOCKS
UNLEASH
OLE OBJECTS
TIE IN THROUGH

DDE
DESIGN

ADVANCED

MENUS

STANDARDIZE

NAMING

FOR CLEARER CODE

WORK

SETUP
MAGIC

U.S. $3.95 (CANADA $4.95)

J O U R N A L

JANUARY 1995 VOL. 5, NO. 1

F E A T U R E S
ABOUT THE COVER
Using OLE Automation as the mortar
between VB and shrinkwrapped
applications, you can build a
foundation for solid programs with
powerful capabilities. The article
beginning on page 22 shows you how
to glue it all together.
Photographic images captured by
Michael Carr. Digital image
manipulation done in Adobe
Photoshop and Pagemaker. Design by
Michael Hollister.

22 OPEN UP THE SHRINKWRAP WITH OLE by Peter Mullen

Use OLE Automation to tear open the shrinkwrap and delve into the features offered
by standalone applications such as Shapewares Visio.

34 BREAKING THE MENU BARRIER by Deepak Agrawal

Ready to go beyond the capabilities of the Menu Design Window? Turn to
subclassing controls and Windows API calls to build snazzy, sophisticated menus.

46 OPTIMIZING ODBC by Andrew Brust

Whether you use the JET engine with ODBC or access the ODBC API directly, you
can develop mission-critical client/server applications.

64 CONSISTENT NAMING CLARIFIES CODE by Randy Kahle

Whats in a name? Plenty! Adopting a naming standard not only cuts down on
debugging, but also improves communication within your development team.

74 SETUP SPELLS FOR YOUR APPLICATIONS by Deborah Kurata

Adjust the SetupWizards magic potion or use the Setup Toolkit to create
customized, professional setup programs for your applications.

F A

W !

For instant information on advertisers

products, use our on-demand
publishing system. See page 123
for details.
Visual Basic Programmers Journal (ISSN: 1075-1955) is
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82 BACK TO THE DDE BASICS by Eric Busby and Marc Huynen

DDE is still the leader when it comes to interapplication communication. The
authors give you a refresher course about this powerful data-sharing method.

C O L U M N S
95 Database Design by Roger Jennings
100 OLE Expert by Keith Pleas
106 Visual Programming by Richard Hale Shaw
110 Windows Programming by Jonathan Zuck
114 Getting Started with VBA by Chris Barlow
119 Programming Techniques by Craig Leach
124 Q&A by Carl Franklin

D E P A R T M
E N T S

5 Publishers Note by James E. Fawcette
6 Letters to the Editor
17 Basic Heroes by Robert W. Scoble
122 Crossword Puzzle
128 Guest Opinion by Gil Schwartz

PRINTED IN USA

19911995 Fawcette Technical Publications

Visual Basic Programmers Journal JANUARY 1995

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