A single document interface (SDI) application displays only one document at a time. SDI applications require the user to load another instance of the application to work with two or more documents. ActiveBar 3.0 allows you to create SDI applications with ease.

This Walkthrough is split up into the following activities.

Adding an ActiveBar control to a form and opening the ActiveBar Designer
Adding a Menu Bar
Adding tools
Creating submenus
Creating the SDI Toolbar
Adding a RichTextBox control
Adding functionality

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have an SDI application that looks similar to the following.

Adding ActiveBar to your application

To Add ActiveBar to your application

Open a new Visual Basic 6.0 project.
Add the ActiveBar 3.0 component to your new project and draw the ActiveBar control onto your form.
With the ActiveBar control selected, in the properties grid change the AlignToForm property to True.

Creating a menu bar

To create a menu bar

Right-click the ActiveBar control in your form and select Properties to display the ActiveBar designer.
Right-click the Categories node in the Designer tree view and select Insert to add a category for the menu bar items. Press F2 to rename the new category Main Menu.

Right-click on the Main Menu category and add the following 6 Button tools to the category.

Category	ID	Name	Caption	Type	Description
Main Menu	1	fileMenu	File	Button	Displays File Popup menu.
Main Menu	2	editMenu	Edit	Button	Displays Edit Popup menu.
Main Menu	3	viewMenu	View	Button	Displays View Popup menu.
Main Menu	4	insertMenu	Insert	Button	Displays Insert Popup menu.
Main Menu	5	formatMenu	Format	Button	Displays Format Popup menu.
Main Menu	6	helpMenu	Help	Button	Displays the Help Popup menu.

Right-click the Bands node and select Menu Bar from the context menu. Select the new Menu Bar icon and press F2 to rename the band Main Menu. Click Apply.
Using your mouse and the SHIFT or CTRL button, select all of the tools in the Main Menu category. Drag the tools onto the Main Menu band in the Bands node.

Adding Tools to your SDI Application

To Add Tools to your SDI Application

Right-click the Categories node and select Insert in the context menu to create 8 categories, one for each menu in the Main Menu category plus two extras to use for Clear and Other categories. Rename each to match its corresponding menu.

Add the following tools to each corresponding category. Set the Style property for each Button tool to ddSIconText.

Category	ID	Name	Caption	Type	Description	Shortcut
File	101	newMIFile	&New	Button	Creates a new document.	CTRL+N
	102	openMIFile	&Open	Button	Opens a document.	CTRL+O, CTRL+F12, ALT+CTRL+F12
	103	saveMIFile	&Save	Button	Saves the active document.	CTRL+S, SHIFT+F12, ALT+SHIFT+F12
	104	saveasMIFile	Save &As	Button	Saves active document with a new name.	F12
	105	printMIFile	&Print	Button	Prints the active document.	CTRL+P, CTRL+SHIFT+F12
	106	pagesetupMIFile	Page Set&up...	Button	Modifies the page layout.
	107	exitMIFile	E&xit	Button	Exits application and prompts to save changes to the active document.
Edit	201	undoMIEdit	&Undo	Button	Reverses last action.	CTRL+Z, ALT+BACKSPACE
	202	cutMIEdit	C&ut	Button	Cuts the current selection from the document and places it on the clipboard.	CTRL+X, SHIFT+Delete
	203	copyMIEdit	&Copy	Button	Copies the current selection from the document and places it on the clipboard.	CTRL+C, CTRL+Num 0
	204	pasteMIEdit	&Paste	Button	Pastes an item from clipboard into a document to the left of the cursor.	CTRL+V, SHIFT+INSERT
	205	findMIEdit	&Find	Button	Displays the Find dialog.	CTRL+F
	206	replaceMIEdit	&Replace	Button	Displays the Find and Replace dialog.	CTRL+H
	207	clearMIEdit	Cle&ar	Button	Displays the Clear sub menu.	DELETE
	208	selectallMIEdit	Select &All	Button	Selects all the items in the document.	CTRL+A, CTRL+Num 5
View	301	mainmenuMIView	Main Menu	Button	Shows or hides the Main Menu.
	302	standardtoolbarMIView	Standard Toolbar	Button	Shows or hides the Standard Toolbar.
	303	optionsMIView	Options...	Button	Set application standards.
Insert	401	breakMIInsert	Break...	Button	Inserts a page break into a document.
	402	pagenumbersMIInsert	Page N&umbers	Button	Inserts page numbers into a document.
	403	datetimeMIInsert	Date and &Time	Button	Displays the Date and Time dialog.
	404	symbolMIInsert	Symbol...	Button	Displays Symbol dialog.
	405	pictureMIInsert	Picture...	Button	Displays the Picture dialog for selecting a picture file.
	406	hyperlinkMIInsert	Hyperlink...	Button	Displays the Hyperlink dialog for adding a Hyperlink to a document.	CTRL+K
Format	501	fontMIFormat	&Font	Button	Sets the font settings for the current selection.
	502	bulletMIFormat	B&ullet	Button	Inserts bullet on the same line as the .	CTRL+SHIFT+F
	503	tabsMIFormat	&Tabs	Button	Sets the Tabs for a document.
	504	formatpaintMIFormat	Format &Painter	Button	Copies the format of the current selection to be imposed onto another selection.
	505	boldMIFormat	&Bold	Button	Toggles the Bold setting on or off.	CTRL+B, CTRL+SHIFT+B
	506	italicMIFormat	&Italic	Button	Toggles the Italic setting on or off.	CTRL+I, CTRL+SHIFT+I
	507	underlineMIFormat	&Underline	Button	Toggles the Underline setting on or off.	CTRL+U, CTRL+SHIFT+U
	508	fontcolorMIFormat	Font &Color	Button	Sets the Font Color for the currently selected text.
	509	highlightMIFormat	&Highlight	Button	Sets and highlights the currently selected text.
Help	601	whatsthisMIHelp	What's This	Button	Displays What's This Help.	SHIFT+F1
	602	aboutMIHelp	&About	Button	Displays current application version and copyright information.
Clear	2091	formatMIClear	Format...	Button	Clears the formats for the current document. Tool displayed in Clear submenu.
	2092	contentsMIClear	Contents	Button	Clears the contents of the current document. Tool displayed in Clear submenu.	F1
Other	701	separatorMIOther		Separator	Separates menu items and icons into groups to create a more organized UI.

Review the Icon Editor topic to add icons to the tools in your project.
Review the Setting Shortcut Keys topic to assign shortcut keys to tools.

Use the ampersand "&" to mark the accelerator character in menus. Try to keep the accelerator character unique within each sub menu.
Tools that display a dialog as their action are usually followed by an ellipsis, "..." .
For each tool, add 99000 to the ID value and use the resulting number as the HelpContextID. For example, give a tool with an ID value of 101 a HelpContextID value of 99101 and so on.
For each tool, make the TooltipText property the same as the caption property without the ampersand.

Creating submenus

To create submenus

Right-click the Bands node in the Designer tree view and select Popup Menu. Add a total of six Popup Menus, and change the Name and Caption properties as in the following table.

Type	Name	Caption
Popup menu	filePopup	&File
Popup menu	editPopup	&Edit
Popup menu	viewPopup	&View
Popup menu	insertPopup	&Insert
Popup menu	formatPopup	F&ormat
Popup menu	helpPopup	&Help

In the Categories node, select all the tools in the File category using the SHIFT or CTRL button and your mouse, drag the tools and drop them onto filePopup.
Select each tool under filePopup in turn and change the SubBand property for each to filePopup.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each category and corresponding popup menu.
Under the Main Menu band, select fileMenu and change the SubBand property to filePopup.
Select each menu under the Main Menu band in turn and change the SubBand property for each to the corresponding popup band.
Right-click Bands and select Popup Menu. Rename it clearPopup and set the caption to Cle&ar.
Expand the editPopup node and select clearMIEdit. Set the SubBand Property for clearMIEdit to clearPopup. This creates a submenu for the Clear menu item.

Creating the SDI toolbar

To create the SDI toolbar

Right-click the Bands node in the Designer tree view and select Tool Bar.
Select the new Tool Bar and rename it standardToolbar.
Select the following tools from their categories and drag them onto standardToolbar. Set the Style property for each tool to ddSIcon.

Drag the Separator tool from the Other category onto standardToolbar to organize the Toolbar icons.

Category	ID	Name	Caption	Type	Description>
File	101	newMIFile	&New	Button	Creates a new document.
	102	openMIFile	&Open	Button	Opens a document.
	103	saveMIFile	&Save	Button	Saves the active document.
	105	printMIFile	&Print	Button	Prints the active document.
	106	pagesetupMIFile	Page Set&up	Button	Modifies the page layout.
Edit	201	undoMIEdit	&Undo	Button	Reverses last action.
	202	cutMIEdit	C&ut	Button	Cuts the current selection from the document and places it on the clipboard.
	203	copyMIEdit	&Copy	Button	Copies the current selection from the document and places it on the clipboard.
	204	pasteMIEdit	&Paste	Button	Pastes an item from clipboard into a document to the left of the cursor.
	205	findMIEdit	&Find	Button	Displays the Find and Replace dialogue.
Format	504	formatpainterMIFormat	Format &Painter	Button	Copies the format of the current selection to be imposed onto another selection.
	505	boldMIFormat	&Bold	Button	Toggles the Bold setting on or off.
	506	italicMIFormat	&Italic	Button	Toggles the Italic setting on or off.
	507	underlineMIFormat	&Underline	Button	Toggles the Underline setting on or off.
	508	fontcolorMIFormat	Font &Color	Button	Sets the Font Color for the currently selected text.

When you finish, your SDI Toolbar ought to look similar to this toolbar.

Adding a Rich Textbox control

To add a Rich Textbox control

Right-click in the Visual Studio toolbox and select Components.
Scroll to the Microsoft Rich Textbox Control 6.0, select the checkbox, and click OK.
Draw the Rich Textbox control onto the form below the toolbars and rename it to rtf.
Note: You can have ActiveBar automatically resize child controls. Resizing can be proportional or set to the client area. ActiveBar automatically resizes the Rich Textbox control as users dock bands to different areas on the form.
Set the ActiveBar AutoSizeChildren property to 2-ddASClientArea.
In the Form_Load event add the following code to set rtf as the client area control.
```
ActiveBar31.ClientAreaControl = rtf 
ActiveBar31.RecalcLayout
            
```

Adding functionality to your application

To add functionality to your application

Open the ActiveBar Designer toolbar and click the Create select case statement and copy to clipboard button.
In the Code view for the form, add an ActiveBar31_ToolClick event.
Paste the select case statement into the event.
Add code to the case statement to control the actions for each tool.

When you are finished your application will look similar to the following.

Walkthrough: Single Document Interface