InputBoxControl
Public Beta 1
Written and designed by Jim Pragit

New Freeware ActiveX Control Released!

I've released a public beta of a new, freeware control I'm writing called "InputBoxControl". It's similar to VB's built-in InputBox function, except it provides greater functionality. For example, if you only want the user to enter in numbers, you can set its NumericOnly property to True.  If you want to limit the user to a certain number of decimal places, there's a MaxDecimalPlace property.  If you don't want the user to enter in lower case letters, you can use the ForceUpperCase  property. In total, there's 18 different properties that VB's InputBox doesn't have. 

I wrote it for two main reasons. 1) I wanted a more powerful alternative to VB's InputBox. 2) I've never written an ActiveX control, so it's a good learning experience. 

I'm releasing this control to the general public as freeware in case other people might want to use it. I've also released it in the hopes that others may extend the features of this control.  Currently, this control will not resize itself based upon the Prompt message like VB's InputBox will. Anyone want to write this?  Also, since it is my first ever ActiveX control, I may have made some mistakes or did things improperly.  Hopefully, if I have, some kind soul out there can offer some feedback.

There is no help file for my InputBoxControl, but everything is very straight forward and you can use the Object Browser to get a complete list of all its properties and methods.

Why InputBoxControl is better than VB's InputBox function:
1) Some nice data filtering capabilities (NumericOnly, AlphaOnly, ForceUpperCase, MaxLength, MaxDecimalPlaces, etc. )
2) Distinguishes between the user clicking Cancel and entering in an empty string. (For some applications, this point is critical. The user clicking Cancel is NOT the same thing as him/her entering an empty string and clicking OK).
3) Easy to use Property Pages
4) Adjustable TextAlignment

Why InputBoxControl is worse than VB's InputBox function:
1) InputBoxControl will NOT resize itself based on the length of the prompt
2) Being an ActiveX control, it requires the distribution of an additional OCX.
3) InputBoxControl is written in VB6.  It may not work in previous versions of Visual Basic. (However, source code is provided. With some minor modifications, you could probably recompile it for use with VB5.  I haven't tried this so you're on your own.)

Warning! This is a beta. There may be bugs. If you find any, please send a bug report (include a complete description of the problem) to emunews@aol.com.

Feedback Is Welcome! This is my first attempt at writing an ActiveX control. If you're an old pro at writing ActiveX controls, I would love to hear your opinions, suggestions, comments and/or criticisms. Contact me at emunews@aol.com.