I Love To Help
Professor Smiley is currently working on his latest book.
Professor Smiley's mission is to help everyone learn to program. Time permitting, he would be glad to answer any questions you may have, but prior to sending an email, please check the following sources first to see if perhaps your question or problem already appears there or can be solved using one of these resources.
If not, feel free to email me---it's
no problem! 
Quick Page Index (Click to go there)
- I have a Programming question or Project I'm working on and I'm stumped
- Errata Pages for my books
- Gotcha Page for my Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6 book
- Downloads and Sample Projects
- Career Advice
- Certification Advice
- Book recommendations
- Want to buy an eBook or an autographed book from me?
- Bootcamps, Tutorials
I have a Programming question or project I'm working on and I'm stumped...
I have several sources to help you here, and I greatly encourage you to check these out prior to contacting me.
If you need help with VB, join my helpwithvb group at YahooGroups.com--and after you join, you can then send the group your question, and hopefully someone will have an answer for you. Sign up for my Help With VB Group
If you need help with Java, join my helpwithjava group at YahooGroups.com--and after you join, you can then send the group your question, and hopefully someone will have an answer for you. Sign up for my Help With Java Group
If you need help with C#, join my helpwithcsharp group at YahooGroups.com--and after you join, you can then send the group your question, and hopefully someone will have an answer for you. Sign up for my Help With C# Group
If you need help with C++, join my helpwithcplusplus group at YahooGroups.com--and after you join, you can then send the group your question, and hopefully someone will have an answer for you. Sign up for my Help With C++ Group
Errata Pages for my books
Professor Smiley maintains an errata page for each one of his books. If you think you have found a problem with one of this books, please be sure to check these links first. If you have passed an errata onto Professor Smiley, he'll be sure to update the respective errata page and thanks you very much!
Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6
Learn to Program with Visual Basic Examples
Learn to Program Databases with Visual Basic 6
Learn to Program Objects with Visual Basic 6
Learn to Program with Visual Basic.Net 2002/2003
Learn to Program with VB.Net 2005 Express
Learn to Program with VB.Net 2008 Express
Learn to Program with C# (using the C# Batch compiler)
Learn to Program with JavaScript
Learn to Program with Visual C# 2005 Express
Learn to Program with Visual C# 2008 Express
Gotcha Page for my Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6 book
Professor Smiley maintains a 'Gotchas' page for his Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6 book.
For those of you who have read the book, you know that just about every question and problem that could arise while writing a VB program was addressed in the book. The Gotchas page represents the questions that Rhonda forgot to ask!
Downloads and Sample Projects
I have close to a hundred projects you can download for free that are either projects I've written, student submissions, or VB Fair submissions. Here are the links that will get you there.
- Addition Project (something I've done)
- China Shop Projects (the China Shop is developed in all of my books)
- Florida Voting Program (My son wrote this program in a more innocent time of history)
- Fran's Flowers Projects (a VB Project I've assigned for my Internet classes)
- Shareware Projects (Projects written by my students)
- Sneaker Shop Projects (a VB Project I've assigned at Penn State)
- Sounds Project (It's a program I wrote for my daughter--keyboard with sounds--uses the Windows API)
- Tic-Tac-Toe Program (my sons wrote this--it needs some enhancements)
- VBFair Projects (Visual Basic Programming Fair Projects)
Career Advice
Professor Smiley previously write a weekly Careers Tip for Searchvb.com. You can check his archived tips at
In addition, Professor Smiley's has a Careers Web Page that has Careers advice. It's a bit dated---but I'll be updating it shortly in conjunction with my new book, 500 Questions and Answers from Professor Smiley.
Certification Advice
Interested in getting certified---Professor Smiley's Certification Page will give you information on the process. This page is also a bit dated---look for updates shortly.
Book recommendations
Professor Smiley maintains a list of Recommended Programming Books
How can I order a book?
If you would like to order an Electronic Book (in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format), follow this link
http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/ebooks.htm
If you would like a printed book, follow the links below. If you would like to order an autographed copy of one of his books, you can do so, but the cost will be higher than Amazon or another Internet based bookstore.
Either way (Amazon or Autographed) my books can all be accessed via this site
http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/mybooks.htm
If you need help with Visual Basic
If you need individual help with Visual Basic, the best thing to do is to join Professor Smiley's helpwithvb group at Yahoo Groups.
Once you have joined, you can post your question, and one of the other members (or perhaps even Professor Smiley) will try to answer your question. Even better, you may find, in browsing the archives, that your question has already been asked. If you would like to join the group, follow this link...
Another valuable resource for Visual Basic questions is to check out the forums at
Professor Smiley and some other very knowledgeable people answer questions in that forum. You can also find many articles about Visual Basic there--including some that Professor Smiley has written.
Finally, this website
is a great resource for Visual Basic questions.
Once you get to the Google Website, click the Groups button, and then type your question before hitting the Search button. Groups will give you access to literally millions of messages posted to the various Usenet newsgroups. Professor Smiley uses it from time to time himself. Just type some keywords into the search box (click 'all' in the DropDown Listbox) and read the results. For instance, this search string
vb+command button+backcolor
will return results indicating how to change the BackColor property of a Command Button.
I'd like to learn with you
You can learn with me in a variety of ways. Primarily, you can buy one of my books. If you need additional help, you can take an Internet Class with me. Follow this link to discover the classes I'm teaching and how they work
http://www.johnsmiley.com/main/training.htm
Don't see what you are looking for?
Perhaps Professor Smiley answered your question on his Question and Answer Page