Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Learning Visual Basic .NET is a snake-necked turtle. Snake-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis) are found in the southern hemisphere in South America, Australia, and New Guinea. They live in slow-moving, fresh-water environments such as rivers. Sometimes, though not regularly, they migrate in search of new waters in the summertime.

Snake-necked turtles have large, webbed back feet in the back for swimming, and claws on their front feet. Their shells have high bumps, covered with moss and water plants that help them blend in with their surroundings. When seeking prey, the turtle holds its head sideways, waits for prey to come near, and then extends its neck and strikes like a snake. It feeds on insects, worms, frogs, small fish, and crustaceans. The turtle emits a foul-smelling fluid from its musk glands when handled, or when trying to frighten predators. Darren Kelly was the production editor for Learning Visual Basic .NET. Nancy Crumpton provided production services and wrote the index. Emily Quill and Claire Cloutier provided quality control.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Lucas-Font's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Linley Dolby.