# Visual Basic newbie - what'd I just do to lose my file?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-basic-newbie-whatd-i-just-do-to-lose-my-file/400947>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 20, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-basic-newbie-whatd-i-just-do-to-lose-my-file/400947 "2007-04-20T15:20:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-basic-newbie-whatd-i-just-do-to-lose-my-file/400947/1 "2007-04-20T15:20:23Z")

</div>

OK, so my first time out using Visual Studio 2003 with Visual Basic (only) in it - how’d I lose the thing I was building?

Yesterday I had a designed interface and a block of code and had debugged it and created a working executable. Today I went hunting for it and I seem to have a “form” in a .vb file containing all the text, and of course the executable, but no designed interface. I thought I could save “projects” and “solutions” (which can hold multiple projects), and “forms”. Other “projects” contain a designed interface and an editor full of code that both have the same name, apparently, as forms, namely “Form1” and “Form1 [design]”. How do I save both, or how did I NOT save both yesterday? And why does the apparent function of Ctrl-S change between Save Form and Save Project depending on what part of the IDE I clicked in last?

Last, is there some kind of manual for this damn thing I’m missing? I spent some time searching and browsing the Help system without finding what “solution”, project", and “form” mean, and without finding what the File \> Save function in the IDE is for.