Let’s create a program that enables the users to open and choose files from the folders in their PC. This can be done easily using a picture box and a common dialog box. In this program, you need to insert a picture box, a common dialog box and an image. In the image properties windows, click on the picture property and select a picture that resembles an open file icon.  The procedure to open the common dialog box to browse the picture files as well as to load the selected picture into the picture box is CommonDialog1.Filter = "Bitmaps(*.BMP)|*.BMP|Metafiles(*.WMF)|*.WMF|Jpeg Files(*.jpg)|*.jpg|GIF Files(*.gif)|*.gif|Icon Files(*.ico)|*.ico|All Files(*.*)|*.*" CommonDialog1.ShowOpen Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture(CommonDialog1.FileName)   The filter property of the common dialog box uses the format as shown below Bitmaps(*.BMP)|*.BMP to specify the file type, and uses the pipe line | to separate different file types.

Visual Basic supports most of the picture formats namely bmp, wmf, jpg, gif, ico(icon) and cur(cursor) files. The command CommonDialog1.ShowOpen is to open the common dialog box and the command  Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture (CommonDialog1.FileName) is to load the selected picture file into the picture box.   The whole program is shown below and the output is shown in Figure 19.4   Private Sub Image1_Click() CommonDialog1.Filter = "Bitmaps(*.BMP)|*.BMP|Metafiles(*.WMF)|*.WMF|Jpeg Files(*.jpg)|*.jpg|GIF Files(*.gif)|*.gif|Icon Files(*.ico)|*.ico|All Files(*.*)|*.*" CommonDialog1.ShowOpen Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture (CommonDialog1.FileName) End Sub