Using ActiveX

This automation method has been superseded by newer technologies and should be used only for testing and backward compatibility.

BarTender supports ActiveX Automation by exposing its functionality as a set of software objects. By using a programming language such as Visual Basic 6.0, VB.NET, or C#, you can programmatically accomplish most of the tasks that you can perform with the BarTender user interface.

The sample code in this help documentation uses VB.NET and C#, although you can use any programming language that supports the Microsoft automation interface. These help topics assume that you are familiar with the BarTender application, with VB.NET or C# syntax, and with the .NET Framework.

We recommend that you use the fully qualified names of BarTender objects, as shown in all examples in this help. If you prefer to use the shorter form of the names, you can add a VB.NET Imports BarTender or a C# using BarTender command to your program. However, with C#, you will still need to fully qualify references to an Application class as either BarTender.Application or System.Windows.Forms.Application.