101 Visual Studio 2010 Tips

Tip #1        How to not accidentally copy a blank line

TO – Text Editor – All Lang – Gen – Apply cut or copy commands to blank lines

Tip #2       How to cycle through the Clipboard ring

Ctrl+Shift+V (Edit.CycleClipboardRing)

Tip #3       How to use the Undo stack

Undo button on Standard Toolbar

Tip #4       New! Automatic highlighting of symbols

Hoverover symbol, then Ctrl+Shift+Arrow to navigate

Tip #5        How to navigate forward and backward w go-back markers

View.NavigateBackward (Ctrl+Minus), View.NavigateForward (Ctrl+Shift+Minus)

Tip #6        New! How to collapse a region with ease

Hover over any part of region and dclick. Or Ctrl+M, Ctrl+M

Tip #7       How to reach the navigation bar via keyboard shortcut

Ctrl+F2 (Window.MoveToNavigationBar), type-ahead selection

Tip #8        How to use Navigate To

Ctrl+comma

Tip #9       How to split a window and create new ones

Window – Split, Window – New Window

Tip #10     How to show line numbers in the editor

Tools – Options – Text Editor – All Languages – General  - Line Numbers

Tip #11     How to enable virtual space

TO – Text Editor – All Languages – General

Tip #12     How to view visible white space

Edit – Advanced – View White Space

Tip #13      How to change the color of visual white space glyphs

TO – Env – Fonts and Colors – Text Editor – Visual White Space

Tip #14     How to increase the editor’s ToolTip font size

TO– Env – Fonts and Colors –Show Settings for – Editor ToolTip

Tip #15      New! How to zoom in/out in Editor

Ctrl+Mouse Wheel / Edit in zoom control

Tip #16      How to change text editor font size via keyboard

Macros.Samples.Accessibility.<increase/decrease>TextEditorFontSize

Tip #17      Diff Automatic vs Default in Fonts and Colors

Tip #18      How to print boldly

TO – Env– Fonts and Colors - Show Settings for – Printer

Tip #19      How to use box/column selection in the editor

Shift+Alt+Arrow, or Mouse+Alt

Tip #20      New! How to use Multiline Edit

Shift+Alt+Arrow, type

Tip #21   How to format the current document

Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D – (Edit.FormatDocument)

Tip #22     You can remove unused using statements in C#

Context Menu – Organize Usings – Remove Unused Usings

Tip #23 How to remove a project from Start Page

Right-click project, select Remove from list

Tip #24   How to set bookmarks and navigate among them

Edit.ToggleBookmark (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K )

Tip #25   You can bookmark your quick find results

Ctrl+F, then press bookmark all

Tip #26   How to increase Intellisense font sizes

TO – Env – Fonts and Colors - Show Settings For - <item>

Tip #27   How to increase Environment font

TO – Env – Fonts and Colors - Show Settings For – Environment Font

Tip #28    Toggle Statement Completion tabs via keyboard

All tab: Alt+.  and  Common Tab: Alt+,

Tip #29    New! How to do Pascal / Sub-string matching in Intellisense

Tip #30    New! How to enable Suggestion mode in Intellisense

Ctrl+Alt+Space to enable

Tip #31    You can insert a snippet by pressing Tab Tab

Type in snippet shortcut word, then hit Tab Tab to insert

Tip #32    New! How to browse new code snippets and add new ones

Tools – Code Snippet Manager, HTML and Javascript

Tip #33    How to insert a code snippet around a block of code in C#

Select code, then Ctrl+K, Ctrl+S.  Command: Edit.SurroundWith

Tip #34    How to behold the power of incremental search

Ctrl+I  - (Edit.IncrementalSearch)

Tip #35    Use Ctrl+F3 to search for currently-selected word

Edit.FindNextStatement

Tip #36   How not to search for the currently-selected word

Tools – Options – Environment – Find and Replace

Tip #37   You can use F3 to search for the last thing you searched for

Edit.FindNext

Tip #38   You can customize what files to find in

Find in Files – Look in – Choose Search Folders

Tip #39  You can use a reg key for customizing search results

HKCU\... \10.0\Find, String Find results format = $f$e($l,$c):$t\r\n

Tip #40   Use Ctrl+Alt+Down to drop down the file tab channel

Window.ShowEzMDIFileList

Tip #41   Use Close All But This on files in the file tab channel

File.CloseAllButThis

Tip #42   You can copy a file’s full path for the file tab channel

File.CopyFullPath

Tip #43  Open a Windows Explorer browser to the active file

File.OpenContainingFolder

Tip #44   How to close just the selected files you want

Window – Windows

Tip #45   How to use the IDE Navigator

Hold Ctrl key, then press tab (or shift+tab)

Tip #46    How to navigate all open tool windows

Hold Alt key, then press F7 (or Shift+F7)

Tip #47    How to disable the IDE Navigator

Rebind Window.Previous/NextDocumentWindow

Tip #48    How to disable statement completion

TO – Text Editor – All Language – Auto List Members

Tip #49     How to customize what the tool window push pin does

TO – Environment – General

Tip #50     Show autohiding tool windows via autohide channel

Right-click in the autohide channel to view context menu

Tip #51     How to redock a tool window via keyboard

Ctrl+Double Click Tool Window title bar

Tip #52     You can maximize a tool window in the editor

Window – Tabbed Document

Tip #53     New! How to move a file onto a secondary monitor

Click-Drag a file out of File Tab Channel

Tip #54     New! How to snap file windows to monitor edges

Windows 7 feature: Win key+Arrow

Tip #55     New! How to put file back into File Tab Channel

Ctrl-DoubleClick

Tip #56      New! How to reverse the order the file tabs open

TO – Doc – insert docs to right of existing ones

Tip #57     Customize the tool window ‘x’ button

Tools – Options – Environment – General

Tip #58     How to access a toolbar within a tool window

Shift+Alt (note: Alt+Shift will not work)

Tip #59    How to quickly access full screen mode

Shift+Alt+Enter – (View.FullScreen)

Tip #60    How to enter the File window layout mode

Open a file from a command prompt

Tip #61    How to use the keyboard to jump to output window panes

Window.NextSubPane. Need to create shortcut

Tip #62     Drag and drop code onto the Toolbox’s General tab

Either drag and drop code, or use Cut/Copy shortcuts

Tip #63     How to use Ctrl+Arrow to move among the Toolbox Tabs

Tip #64     Switch between the Icon View and the List view in Toolbox

On Context Menu, uncheck List view

Tip #65     You can use Show All to find your hiding Toolbox controls

On Context Menu, check Show All

Tip #66 You can show custom tokens in the Task list

TO – Environment – Task List, add custom token to list

Tip #67 How to find what development settings you last reset to

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Profile, LastResetSettingsFile

Tip #68 You can create a macro for your import / export settings

Tip #69   How to open a file without any UI

Tools.GoToCommandLine

Tip #70   How to have fun with the Find Combo Box

Does everything from finding stuff to making coffee

Tip #71   How to not show the Start Page on launch

TO – Env – Startup – anything but Show Start Page

Tip #72   How to open to the last loaded project

TO – Env – Startup – Load Last Loaded project

Tip #73   How to use solution folders to hide projects

Solution Explorer context menu – Add New Solution Folder

Tip #74   How to create temp or throw away projects

TO – Projects and Solutions – uncheck Save new projects when created

Tip #75   How to hide or show the Project Location is Not Trusted message box

TO – Projects and Solutions

Tip #76   How to show the Misc Files project in Solution Explorer

TO – Env – Documents, show Misc project

Tip #77   How to type-ahead selection in solution explorer

Just type name of file and focus will jump to file that matches

Tip #78   How to add a solution to a solution

File – Open Project, choose a solution (not a project) file

Tip #79   How to have the Sln Explorer show active file

TO – Projects and Solutions – General – Track Active Item

Tip #80   How to use tracepoints to log stuff in your code

Editor context menu – Breakpoints – Add Tracepoints

Tip #81   How to use DataTips to edit a variable’s content

Click inside DataTip contents to edit

Tip #82   New! How to leave comments in Data Tips

Expand down arrow and type in comment

Tip #83   New! How to export Data Tips

Debug – Export DataTips

Tip #84   New! How to label breakpoints

Right-click on breakpoint in Bp Window, Edit Labels

Tip #85   New! How to export breakpoints

Breakpoint Window – Export Breakpoints button on toolbar

Tip #86   How to select the startup project from the Sln Explorer

Tools – Options – Projects and Solutions – Build and Run

Tip #87   How to make statement completion transparent

Hold down Ctrl key.

Tip #88   You can use Ctrl+. to show a smart tag

Tip #89   Shortcut to go directly to the class view search bar

View.ClassViewGoToSearchCombo

Tip #90   How to bring up Code Definition Window in C#

View – Code Definition Window, Ctrl+\, D 

Tip #91   How to bring up the Call Hierarchy dialog

 View – Call Hierarchy, Ctrl+Alt+K

Tip #92   How to use “Devenv /nosplash” to speed up launch, maybe

Tip #93   You can create project/item templates

File – Export Template

Tip #94   New Project from Existing Code

File – New – Project from existing code

Tip #95   Edit project file within IDE

Unload then select Edit

Tip #96   XAML Visualizer

Drop down arrow in DataTip to show XAML visualizer option

Tip #97   How to see the caught exception in Watch Window

Add $exception to watch window

Tip #98   You can disable the Exception assistant

Tools – Options – Debugging – General

Tip #99   New! How to use Historical debugging aka Intellitrace

Up / Down arrows in gutter like DVR controls

Tip #100   New! How to open IntelliTrace log

Double-click .iTrace files to open in VS

Tip #101 New! How to use Extension Manager

Install VS Tips extension to get Tips in Start Page

VS：101 Visual Studio 2010 Tips