Central to the versatility of Visual Basic 6 is its implementation of forms and controls--without them the erstwhile programmer is going to get nowhere fast. It"s odd then, that Microsoft should provide such poor documentation, hidden away as it is in the voluminous online help files. For those poor souls who don"t have the time to second-guess where the help is, O"Reilly have produced this rather spiffy volume, Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell, covering the Professional and Enterprise editions of the software. The book is divided into two sections. The first covers the background to the control set. The second lists all controls, properties, methods and events, and provides a handy mousemat-sized quick reference to boot. Author Evan Dictor has done a sterling job in documenting the VB6 controls combining helpful, succinct descriptions with many useful code snippets to fully illustrate the points he"s making. Of particular interest are the sections relating to forms and MDI forms, which not only detail relevant controls but also give some in-depth information on the order in which associated events are fired, and interactions between controls--great stuff if you"ve ever expected something to happen only to find the exact opposite is true because event firing doesn"t work in the way you might expect it to. Weighing in at 750 pages this isn"t the smallest VB book on the market, but it is one of the most comprenhesive and a highly recommended addition to the desktop bookshelf of any developer. --Chris Russell