As you work through the lessons in the guided tour, you may find that your program doesn't run or that it doesn't behave the way that it should. In most cases, errors occur because you skipped a step or mistyped the code.

Tip
When entering code for a guided tour lesson, use the Copy Code button in the Help topic, and paste the code into the Code Editor—it's easier than typing it, and you are less likely to make a mistake.

It is also possible that, due to late-breaking changes in the product, steps or code in the lesson may be wrong. The online versions of these topics are constantly being updated, so a corrected version of the topic may be available online.

To correct errors in a lesson

The options available in dialog boxes, and the names and locations of menu commands you see, might differ from what is described in Help, depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.

The Help files that are included with Visual Basic Express Edition are a subset of the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions, which is in turn a subset of the full MSDN Online Library. During installation you had the option of installing the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions—if you chose not to install it, consider doing so now.

A Link Doesn't Work

Pressing F1 Doesn't Work

How to: Enable Online Access

The first time you access help from Visual Basic Express Edition you are prompted to choose how online Help is configured. The choices are to try and find the online version of a topic first, to try locally installed Help first and look online if it isn't found, or to use local Help only.

Tip
If you have access to the Internet, you should configure Help so that it checks online Help first—if a newer version of a topic is available, you will always have the most up-to-date information.

You can change you Help options at any time as described below.

Note
To access online Help, you must have an active connection to the Internet, and any proxy server or firewall must be configured to allow access to the MSDN online library.

To enable online access

1. If it is not already open, open Visual Basic from the Windows Start menu.

2. On the Tools menu, click Options.

3. In the Options dialog box, select the Show All Settings check box.

4. Expand the Help node under Environment, and then click Online.

5. In the When loading Help content box, click either Try online first, then local, or Try local first, then online.

   You should now be able to access online Help.

A local database file can be included as a file in a project. The first time you connect your application to a local database file, you can choose between creating a copy of the database in your project or connecting to the existing database file in its current location.

If you choose to create a copy of the database, depending on the file settings, it is possible that a new copy of the database is being created each time the project is run, overwriting the version that contains your changes. For more information, see How to: Manage Local Data Files in Your Project.

Tasks

Concepts