Updated 4 june 2007
  Thomas Allin's

  Visual Basic
  Page

Here you will find Active-X controls you can use with VB 6. Some are free, others almost, and some includes source code. All controls are coded by myself and can not be found anywhere else. You won't find a lot of code from the Internet or a bunch of VB-links here.
You are welcome to link to this site from your own home page, but please do not link to any individual zips, and please don't upload any of the zips anywhere. If you compile the source code, please, do NOT use binary compatibility against the existing controls! Thanks.

Vemod Dockable Pro

Vemod Dockable Pro is an ActiveX control giving you the possibility of using dockable forms in your VB6 projects. The output of Dockable Pro is similar to the dockable forms found in the VB6 IDE. The Dockable Pro can save the state of all forms between sessions. The source code for this control is also available. Current version is 1.0.12. Screen Shot and demo AVI (Price US$: 70) Buy
 

Vemod Dockable Pro 2.0

Vemod Dockable Pro 2 features all of the above + dockable toolbars. The source code for this control is also available. Current version is 2.0.5. (The control needs the Windows Common Controls 6.0) Screen Shot and demo AVI (Price US$: 90) Buy

Here is a small example that shows how to make an SDI project with dockable toolbars and forms.

Vemod SeeThroughPictureBox

The Vemod SeeThroughPictureBox is similar to the PictureBox that comes with VB with the exception that it can be transparent. It is as easy to use and offers a few extra goodies like a Moveable Property and a ReplaceColor method. Mouse clicks will go through transparent areas to the controls underneath. The SeeThroughPictureBox can be used in drawing programs to create moveable layers, to do custom drawing on top of other controls or simply to show pictures with a transparent background. (Price FREE)

SoundCard Control

With the SoundCard Control you can control the MIDI, Wave and mixer-devices of your soundcard or synth. Send and receive MIDI messages on selectable devices, adjust the volume of MIDI, Wave, Line and Mic-devices, play MIDI and Wave-files on selectable devices with end-notification and make sophisticated MIDI-thru filtering or modifications. Current version is 1.0.3. (Price US$: 35) Buy

Vemod Add-In Control

Vemod Add-In Control makes your apps Add-In ready in minutes. Once this control is in your app you can expose anything to third party Add-In developers through a generic interface. The control takes care of registry matters, menus and toolbars and contains an Add-In manager like the one in the VB IDE. Developing Add-Ins is also greatly simplified and no special installation or registration of Add-Ins is needed. The control can persist the state of the Add-Ins between sessions. 2 sample projects included. The source code for this control is also available. (The control needs the Windows Common Controls 6.0) (Price US$: 35) Buy

Vemod Inter App Mailer Control

Vemod Inter App Mailer is an activeX control that lets you send and receive messages to and from different apps on the same computer or computers in a network. It encapsulates the Mailslot API in one very easy to use control. You can have multiple MailSlot controls in the same app and a MailSlot control can notify the app when it receives a message. Sample projects included. (A mailslot is a mechanism for one-way interprocess communications (IPC). A Win32-based application can store messages in a mailslot. The owner of the mailslot can retrieve messages that are stored there. These messages are typically sent over a network to either a specified computer or to all computers in a specified domain. A domain is a group of workstations and servers that share a group name.) (Price US$: 35) Buy

Vemod Sizable Control

The Sizable control lets you resize any type of control at runtime. The sizable control is a control container that adds grab handles to one or more controls and lets the user resize it with mouse or keyboard. Just like when you size controls on a form in the VB IDE. Sample project included. Screen Shot (Price US$: 20) Buy
 

Vemod PropertyWindow 3

This propertyWindow is similar to the one found in the VB 6 IDE. Version 3 is faster and includes a handful of new property types and bug fixes. Now also includes a small sample project. (The control needs the Windows Common Controls 6.0 and MSFlexGrid) (Price: FREE)

Vemod PropertyWindow 4

Here is a new version of the Property Window, thanks to William M. Rawls. A lot of useful stuff has been added (as well as some new dependencies: Windows Common Dialog 6.0 and Windows Common Controls-2 6.0). Here is what has been added:

  • Value(X) is now read/write.
  • ListValue(X) allows the setting and returning of a list type (only) property by it's named value.
  • PropertyTag(X) allows the association of a Variant with each property.
  • PropertySettings(x) allows the return and setting of an entire PropertyType structure.
  • XML allows for the serialization and deserialization of the control into an XML document.
  • HeadlineHeight allows for initial and dynamic sizing of the headline area specified in twips.
  • HeadlineVisible allows the headline area to be show and hidden.
  • There are a few new attributes on PropertyType which add support for Currency, Single, Double, Date, File, Folder, Color, (mdb) Database selection, Date Selection, and psudo-masked text input.
  • The "Alternatives" attribute on the "Add" method now also takes a variant allowing lists to be passed as a variant array ala Array("A", "B", "C")
  • The HideTabs property makes the Alphabetic/Categorized tabs optional. The view can still be changed with the Mode Property.

Vemod PropertyWindow 5

Here is an even newer version of the Property Window, this time thanks to Kjell Cederfeldt. He has done a magnificent job:

  • Localization.
  • New property types: Color, Date, Drive, File, Folder, Font, Password and Printer.
  • A DeleteProperty function.
  • A SelectProperty method.
  • Bugfixes and enchancements.

Vemod PropertyWindow 6

The free PropertyWindow is very popular and (to my luck) skilled programmers offer their help with the development. This time Matthew McNeill has entirely redesigned the properties, events and object model that underly the Control. It is now very much more in line with the normal usage provided by MSComCtlLib Controls:

  • Use the Properties collection to add, remove, clear, return and modify Properties and property settings. The old Add, Delete, Clear, Exist and Value members are not available in v.6.
  • Use the Categories().Properties collections to keep track of properties in a given category
  • List type properties now use the Properties().ListItems collection to hold list entries
  • SelectedProperty sets/returns the Property object of the selected property. The SelectProperty method is not available any more.
  • PropertyClick, PropertyDoubleClick, PropertyCustomEdit and PropertyChange Events passes a property object.
  • The HitTest function returns a property object from the x,y coordinates.
  • PW6 is alignable.
  • Better XML support:
    Let/get of document
    Let/get of document fragment for embeding in other xml
    Let/get Namespace
    Let/get URI

Matthew McNeill has started a VB site, and you can reach him here: . Thanks Matthew.

Vemod PropertyWindow 7

Once again improvements forced the binary compatibility to be broken. Contributors this time is Matthew McNeill and Sylvester Ridell.

       Improvements by Matthew McNeill:

  • Rationalised property values so that they are typed properties. For example, numbers are Double, text is Strings, True/False are Boolean etc. This is useful when using the VarType(variant) routines on property values. If you don't specify Min/Max criteria when creating a new Property then no Min/Max limits are applied.
  • Added debug and error handling code throughout the project (this code should make it very easier to debug the compied code - see DebugSettings.reg and modErrorHandling to see what options exist and how to activate them) It should also be of great assistance in tracking down errors when debugging in the IDE, since the run will be stopped when errors occur using 'Debug.Assert False' dragging the break point onto the resume statement at the bottom of a procedure will return the break point to the exact lien where the error occurred.
  • Added Help data (which is embedded in the source code).
  • PropertyWindow.AutoPaint Which enables the user to switch off the auto updating of the control when conducting long property load operations (speeds things up loads and also prevents odd event race contitions which cause the control to raise errors)
  • Added a Property.Locked property which indicates when a property is static. the user can then enable and disable individual properties when they are loaded. Optimally it would be good to totally remove the old pwStatic property types but for now I have just mapped them to the normal property types and set the Locked value to True. Any property type can now be made static.
  • Fixed some bugs which stopped the control repainting when some routines failed such as Properties.Add()
  • Done a lot of work to fix some intermittent bugs where bad values were written into some property types when the user moved focus through the properties list and left incorrect values. This now seems to be fixed.
  • Compiled a great looking help file.

       Improvements by Sylvester Riddell:

  • Added the pwColorEx with an improved color picker dialog that includes system colors.
 

Vemod Tooltab

This control allows you to place several Toolbars on very little space. Similar to the Toolbox in the VB 6 IDE. Includes a small sample project. (The control needs the Windows Common Controls 6.0) (Price: FREE)

Vemod ScrollBox Control

Oh no, not another ScrollBar control! Exept this one has some extra features. It will e.g. detect size changes of the control within the ScrollBox. I use it all the time myself. This control is very well suited to be used as a private UserControl within a project, because it doesn't subclass anything. The compiled version includes a fix of the ScrollBars background which otherwise paints incorrectly on Win NT and Win 2000. (Price: FREE) View the  Source Code
  By the way... here is another (free) control that fixes the NT/2000 ScrollBar bug just by dropping it on the object that holds the ScrollBars.

 

Vemod MDI Background Control

Center a picture on an MDI forms Client area. Windows Meta Files (WMF) can be transparent. (Price: FREE)

Persistent Form

Drop it on a Form and the form is Persistent. Pretty easy, eh.. Oh, It works a little smoother if you call the Connect method in the Form_Load event. No help file needed. (Price: FREE) View the  Source Code

 

Knob

Just a rather fancy knob. No help file needed (Price: FREE)

 

ScoreView Control

I guess this is the only Active-X control that will allow you to display and edit music notation in your VB app. After several years of hard work it is finally ready. ScoreView, apart from high quality music notation, also includes a full featured notation to MIDI rendering motor that will play dynamics, tempo changes and even trills and other ornaments. Includes help file, a music sample and sample project.(The control needs VB6 SP4 ,the Windows Common Controls 6.0 and Windows Common Dialog 6.0)  Sample MIDI file (from Bartoks Concerto for Orchestra 2. mvt.)   (Price: US$: 150)

Who is Thomas Allin anyway?

Coprincipal bassist at the Gothenburg Opera, freelance programmer

Recent projects: Vemod News Mailer, Object Studio and Object Composer

Reach Thomas here: .