Let's say we've been hired to design The World's Ugliest Demo for a particular computer company.

• Start off with a blank form. Create a label, called lblTitle, at the top of the screen.
• Put a Timer on the form, and name it tmrTitle.
• Change the label so it reads "Al's Discount Miscellany", increase its font size to 16 or 18, and change the color to a bright red or pink.
• Set the Timer's Interval property to 20 and make sure Enabled is true. Then put the following code in tmrTitle's Timer procedure:

  If Toggle = 1 Then Toggle = 0 lblTitle.Caption = "Al's Discount Miscellany" Else Toggle = 1 lblTitle.Caption = "" End If

• Add the line Dim Toggle As Integer to the Form's (General) (Declarations) section.
• Run your program, and watch the title flicker on and off.

OK, now we have a flashing title for our demo. Now to add a list of products.

• Below the title, put a Combo Box. Name it cmbProducts. This will contain a list of products.
• Below the Combo Box, create a fairly large label, and name it lblProductInfo. This label will display a descriptive message for the product chosen in the Combo Box.
• Change lblProductInfo's BorderStyle property to 1, and make its font something outrageous.
• Add the following code in the Form's Load procedure:

  cmbProducts.List(0) = "Machine Guns" cmbProducts.List(1) = "Feather Beds" cmbProducts.List(2) = "Storm Doors" cmbProducts.List(3) = "Nuclear Reactors" cmbProducts.ListIndex = 0

• Now add the following code in cmbProducts' Click procedure:

  If cmbProducts.ListIndex = 0 Then lblProductInfo.Caption = "Direct from the source in Italy!" ElseIf cmbProducts.ListIndex = 1 Then lblProductInfo.Caption = "We hand-pluck our chickens." ElseIf cmbProducts.ListIndex = 2 Then lblProductInfo.Caption = "Providing a steady storm above the doorjamb." ElseIf cmbProducts.ListIndex = 3 Then lblProductInfo.Caption = "Tested at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island." End If

• Run your program and select different products from the Combo Box. Notice that the label is updated as soon as a new product is selected.

Now to add something truly silly.

• Create a button on the bottom of the form, and name it btnDont. Set its caption to "Don't Click Me!", and make sure to change its font and colors (maybe purple on black?).
• Add the following code under btnDont's Click procedure:

  temp = MsgBox("Erasing all files....", vbAbortRetryIgnore, "You asked for it") If temp = vbAbort Then temp = MsgBox("Aborting files. Files erased.", vbOKOnly, "OK") ElseIf temp = vbRetry Then temp = MsgBox("Trying again...erased your files this time.", vbOKOnly, "Cancel") Else temp = MsgBox("OK, I'm ignoring you. Your files are erased.", vbOKOnly, "Help") End If

• Run your program and click on the button.