MDI Forms in Visual Basic 6

What is an MDI form?

MDI stands for Multiple Document Interface. You have probably seen many MDI
applications. When you want to handle multiple documents, MDI forms are
useful in a Windows program.

How to add an MDI form to the

current project?

Project -> Add MDI form., a project can have only one MDI form.

Restrictions of the MDI form

1.

You can have only one MDI form per project.

2.
You can't place most controls on an MDI form. The only controls that can
be placed on the surface of the MDI form are Menus, Timer,
CommonDialog, PictureBox, ToolBar, and StatusBar.

How does the MDI form work?

There can be only one MDI parent form in a project with one or more MDI child
forms (or simply child forms).

MDI child form: To add a child form, you have to add a regular form,
and set the MDIchild property to True. You can have many child forms and can
show an MDI child form using the Show method.
AutoShowChildren property of an MDI form: The default value of
the AutoShowChildren property is True. When it is True, the MDI child forms are
displayed once they are loaded. When the value is False only then you can keep
it hidden after loading, otherwise not.
Restrictions of the MDI child forms:
1. You can't display an MDI child form outside its parent.
2. You can't display a menu bar on the MDI child form.

ActiveForm property: This is the Object type read-only property of the

MDI form. You can apply this property to one of the children. For example, you
can close the active form using this property from the Close menu command of
the menu bar.
'In the MDI form
Private Sub mnuFileClose_Click()
If Not (ActiveForm Is Nothing) Then Unload ActiveForm
End Sub

Note that '(ActiveForm Is Nothing)' represents that there is no active form.

Example:-

Code:
'Inside the MDI form module
Private Sub mnuCascade_Click(Index As Integer)
Arrange vbCascade
End Sub
Private Sub mnuClose_Click()
If Not (ActiveForm Is Nothing) Then Unload ActiveForm
End Sub
Private Sub mnuExit_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub
Private Sub mnuNew_Click()
Dim frm As New Form1
frm.Show
End Sub
Private Sub mnuWin_Click(Index As Integer)
Select Case Index
Case 0
Arrange vbCascade
Case 1
Arrange vbTileHorizontal
Case 2
Arrange vbTileVertical
Case 3
Arrange vbArrangeIcons
End Select
End Sub
'Inside the child form module
Private Sub Form_Resize()

Text1.Move 0, 0, ScaleWidth, ScaleHeight

End Sub