Help Authoring Tools & Code

These tools help you make helpfiles for your applications and controls.

HTML Help COM Assistant - Nice tool to automatically generate HTML Help documentation for your COM/ActiveX component. [Visit Website]

HTML Help Workshop - Freeware from microsoft to generate HTML Help Files. [Visit Website]

Help Visual Basic Class Module - Complete VB6 Module to work with HTML Helpfiles [Visit Website]

Tools: Add-In to make Console Apps using VB6

The 'PowerVB Console Application Add-In' provides an integrated mechanism for turning a Standard Exe application into a console application.

Using this add-in to generate a Windows Console application is equivalent to running 'EditBin /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE MyExe.Exe' from the command line.
 

[Visit Website]

C to VB6 Converter

Program to convert C syntax to VB6 code, useful when working with APIs.



[Download]

Tools: List of useful VB6 Add-Ins

Here is a list of few very useful VB6 Addins which provides many features.

vbAdvance
vbAdvance is a Visual Basic Add-In which gives access to advanced build features and many IDE convenience features. You can create Console Applications, Exports Function from VB6 DLLs, Create Resource-Only DLLs and more.
[Visit Website]

Visual Basic 6.0 Procedure Sort Add-In
[Visit Website]

Smart Indenter v3.5
Smart Indenter is a utility to tidy up VBA code by rebuilding the indentation of each line.
[Visit Website]

Tools: Resource Hacker

Resource Hacker is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

[Homepage]

Tools: Installers

The Package & Deployment Wizard that comes with VB 6.0 for making setup for software is outdated and looks unprofessional. Here is the list of some alternatives.

InnoSetup
Powerful script based installer creator [Homepage]


ISTool
GUI front-end for InnoSetup [Homepage]


Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
Another script based installer from the creators of WinAmp [Homepage]

ClickTeam Install Creator
GUI based installer [Homepage]

Updated P&D Wizard
If you still want to use P&D wizard then JSWare provides an updated version of VB's P&D Wizard [Homepage]

Tools: Right-click OCX Register

This registry file will add Register/UnRegister context menu to all OCX/DLL files so we can quickly register/unregister them without manually using regsvr32. A real timesaver.

[Download]

Tools: ThunderVB

ThunderVB is an add-in for VB6. ThunderVB let's you embed Asm and C instructions directly in you VB source programs. Furthermore ThunVB let's you create a true StdCall Dlls. Moreover ThunVB can extend VB IDE to a basic Asm/C code editor. That means it can do syntax-highlighting of Asm/C keywords and supports intelli-sense for InlineAsm code as well.



http://sourceforge.net/projects/thundervb/

http://www.freewebs.com/hardcorevb/tvb.html

http://www.pscode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=62038&lngWId=1

Tools: Manifest Creator

Manifest files are needed for XP+ theme support and Vista+ UAC security
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=606736

VB6 Alternatives

Here is my comparison of VB6 Alternatives. The exe size mentioned here is of a typical hello world application.

---Paid---

RealBasic [Homepage]
Cost: $99 for one OS, $299 for Pro
Cons:
1. This is a complete package but there are still some problems with the IDE, the IDE lacks good intellisense support, you have to press Tab to mimic the intellisense and there are no tooltips for control properties while coding, instead this information is displayed in the statusbar.
2. Not that good property pages.
3. Large exe size (about of 3.2 MB)
Pros: Cross Platform, COM support

PowerBasic [Homepage]
Cost: $199 for Compiler + $99 for GUI Designer
Cons: Separate Compiler and GUI designer, Expensive
Pros: Small exe size (about 75KB), No Runtimes, COM support.

KBasic [Homepage]
Cost: Euro 25
Cons: No ActiveX Support, Large Runtime size (about 30 MB)
Pros: Cross Platform, Syntax Compatible with VB6

PureBasic [Homepage]
Cost: Euro 79
Pros: IDE Available for Multiple Platforms
Cons: No COM support, Confusing Project Management

LibertyBasic [Homepage]
Cost: $60

---Free---

JustBasic [Homepage]

FreeBasic [Homepage]
Pros: Free, Multiple IDE/GUI Designer Available

Jabaco [Homepage]
Description Jabaco is a Basic language compiler closely based on VB6 syntax that generates 100% Pure Java bytecode that runs on the Java VM, and includes a GUI builder and IDE.

Tools: Virtual PC 2007

Virtual PC 2007 allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time. very good tool for testing you app.

[Virtual PC Homepage] [Download]

Tools: Mouse Wheel Add-In

Here are a list of few VB6 Addins which adds mousewheel scrolling support to the VB6 IDE.

MS Mousewheel Addin - This addin is released by Microsoft, they have also released source code for it. [Download]

FreeWheel - This is another Addin which does the same thing and comes with more features. [Download]

VBScroll - This is another Addin which does the same thing and comes with few extra features like Horizontal Scrolling [Download]

Add-Ins: MZ-Tools

MZ-Tools 3.0 is a freeware add-in for Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic 5.0 and the Visual Basic For Applications editor (provided by a 32-bit VBA-enabled application such as those in Office 2000-2010) which adds several productivity features to the IDE.

You can download it from www.mztools.com

Tools: Make My Manifest

Make My Manifest is a tool to generate manifest files for your application so that you can use ActiveX controls without registering them first, aka Reg-Free COM.

[http://mmm4vb6.atom5.com]

Tools: API-Guide

API-Guide is a API database which lists all API example on allapi.net in a easy to use offline tool. API-Guide has over 900 functions, all documented, and explained with an example.

[Download]

Tools: API Viewer

If you work with API, you've probably noticed that the win32api.txt file that comes with Microsoft's API Viewer is totally out of date. This file is based on the Windows95 header files, and with the arrival of Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP, many new functions were created.

ApiViewer is a replacement for Microsoft's API Viewer. The data-file is based on the latest Windows XP header files, so that means you get access to approximately 6500 functions and 55600 constants! Win32api.txt has approximately 1500 functions and 5000 constants.

[Download]