Update one form based on selections from another form - vb.net

Question

I apologise if the title is a bit vague, i've only been on here a day.
So my problem is I have a menu form in which I input the options from the comboboxes. And then I go to the next form which shows the relevant imported text file info.
However when I click the 'back' button to return to the menu and input different information in the comboboxes, it doesn't take me to the correct text file info, it just shows the info from the previous selection.
here is the student menu pic
here is the text file form
below is the code for the student menu next button:
If OptionBox.Text = "Introduction" Then
Introduction.Show()
Else
If OptionBox.Text = "Explanation" Then
Explanation.Show()
End If
End If
End Sub
below is the code for the text file form load page and the back button
Private Sub Introduction_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Student_Menu.Hide()
Dim font As New System.Drawing.Font("Calibri", 11)
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Computer Systems" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\ComputerSystems.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
sr.Close()
Else
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Hardware" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\Hardware.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
sr.Close()
Else
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Software" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\Software.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
Else
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Representation of Data" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\RepresentationOfData.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
Else
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Databases" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\Databases.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
Else
If Student_Menu.TopicSelect.Text = "Communications & Networks" Then
Dim strFile As String = "C:\Users\Sales\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\gcsecomputingtask\textfiles\Introduction\Hardware.txt"
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(strFile)
IntroductionLabel.Text = sr.ReadToEnd()
End If
End If
End If
End If
End If
End If
IntroductionLabel.Font = font
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnBack.Click
Me.Hide()
Student_Menu.Show()
Student_Menu.TopicSelect.ResetText()
Student_Menu.OptionBox.ResetText()
End Sub
what do i need to do in order to update this information so that the program doesn't skip going through the form again.

Answer 1

There is a lot of repeated code there. Here is a way to reduce it (see DRY) and expose a method to change the topic. In a Module:
Public Enum Topics
ComputerSystems
Hardware
Software
Data
Database
Networks
End Enum
Then in the form that shows the text:
Friend Sub DisplayTopic(topic As Topics)
Dim text As String
Dim filname As String = ""
Select Case topic
Case Topics.ComputerSystems
filname = "ComputerSystems.txt"
Case Topics.Database
filname = "Databases.txt"
'... etc
End Select
' attach path
filname = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments),
"gcsecomputingtask", filname)
text = File.ReadAllText(filname)
IntroductionLabel.Text = text
End Sub
By the way, VB does has an ElseIf which can avoid the "arrow" anti pattern you can see in your code. At the very least, the excessive indentation is annoying.
If topic = Topics.ComputerSystems Then
'...
ElseIf topic = Topics.Software Then
'...
End If
Show that form normally using an instance of the form class:
Public Class MenuForm ' a form is just a class
' declare an object variable to use
Private info As Form2 ' whatever its name is (Explanation???)
....
Private Sub MenuForm_Load(...)
' create an instance to be used later:
info = New Form2
Then invoke the method to tell it which topic to display. Displaying topic info is a separate method from loading a form first because the form load event happens only once. A specialized method to do what we want makes more sense since they really have nothing to do with one another, and makes it easier to see how the code works:
info.DisplayTopic(Topics.ComputerSystems)
info.Show
This way, you dont have one form fiddling with the controls on another, but still have a clear way of communicating which topic to display.
Note that the location of the topics file(s) is a bit different. You'd want a "gcsecomputingtask" folder in MyDocuments for the files. The VS project folder is not a good place for it, the folder location could change depending on which machine you are running on (yours or computer lab etc). They could also be stored as a resource to skip that part too.