There is no special procedure for creating a project group on its own: You
just start with a standard Visual Basic project, and then add other projects to
it. By adding a second project, you implicitly create a new group. You add and
remove projects in the group with the File menu’s Add Project and Remove
Project options, as shown in Figure 19.1.
Selecting the Add Project command brings up the same style of dialog box as
Visual Basic 6 shows at startup, enabling you to create a new project. Select
one from a list of recently opened projects or select any other existing project
through a standard directory browser, as shown in Figure 19.2.
FIGURE 19.1 Visual Basic 6 includes Add Project and Remove
Project commands for working with project groups.
FIGURE 19.2 Using a standard directory browsing dialog
box to open an existing project.
The Remove Project command disassociates the currently selected project with
the project group, and is also available through the rightclick context menu in
the Project Explorer. Even if you remove projects until only one project remains,
it is still contained within a project group. If, on the other hand, you remove
all the projects in a project group, it is the equivalent of closing the group
completely.
When you exit Visual Basic or attempt to load another project (as opposed to
adding a project), the current group and its associated projects must be closed.
If the group has not previously been saved, this is when you can specify a name
and location for the file, as shown in Figure 19.3. You can also save the entire
project group through the two menu options: Save Project Group and Save Project
Group As. These commands are not available when you do not have multiple projects
loaded. It is not necessary to save the group in any particular location, relative
to its component projects, but it can make moving the entire set of your development
files easier if you store them all in the same area.
FIGURE 19.3 Saving a project group file (*.VBG).
FIGURE 19.4. Group Files appear in Visual Basic’s
Recent tab.
After a project group has been saved, it will appear in the Recent tab in any
open project dialog boxes, as shown in Figure 19.4, as well as in the Recently
Opened Files list near the bottom of the File menu.
