The PropertyGrid control provides access to the properties it represents but not in a very friendly way. It holds them in a tree structure. The exact structure depends on whether the user is displaying items by category or alphabetically.

The find_item function starts at the currently selected item and follows parent links up until it reaches the root of the tree. It then calls function find_node to search the tree for the property with a given name.

' Find the root item. Then search the property grid's
' item tree for the indicated item.
Private Function find_item(ByVal property_grid As _
    PropertyGrid, ByVal item_label As String) As GridItem
    Dim root As GridItem = property_grid.SelectedGridItem
    While Not (root.Parent Is Nothing)
        root = root.Parent
    End While
    Return find_node(item_label, root)
End Function

' Search the property grid's
' item tree for the indicated item.
Private Function find_node(ByVal item_label As String, _
    ByVal root As GridItem) As GridItem
    If root.Label = item_label Then
        Return root
    Else
        For Each gi As GridItem In root.GridItems
            Dim result As GridItem = find_node(item_label, _
                gi)
            If Not (result Is Nothing) Then Return result
        Next gi
        Return Nothing
    End If
End Function

' Select ths property grid's indicated item.
Public Sub SelectPropertyGridItem(ByVal property_grid As _
    PropertyGrid, ByVal item_label As String)
    property_grid.SelectedGridItem = _
        find_item(property_grid, item_label)
End Sub