@ScottCate: Visual Studio Tricks

#100 Reach the Navigation bar via the keyboard

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:48:00 GMT

At the very top of the editor and just below the File Tab Channel, you'll find the Navigation Bar. The left combo box lists objects and the right lists the select objects members. This is very useful when you need to jump to various functions throughout a large solution, or you want to see what functions an object has (or is missing).

To jump to the navigation bar via the keyboard, press Ctrl+F2. This is bound to the command Window.MoveToNavigationBar, so your keyboard shortcut mileage may vary. To toggle between the Objects list and the Members list, press Tab or Shift+Tab.

Additionally, you can hide (or show) the navigation bar by going to Tools - Options - Text Editor - All Languages - General and setting the Navigation bar option to the desired setting. Note that since this is found in All Languages, you can customize this for any listed language under the Text Editor node.

#99 Change the Brace Matching color

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:47:00 GMT

A previous tip talked about what that automatic delimiter highlighting option does. A follow-up tip is how to change the Brace Matching color.

Go to Tools - Options - Fonts and Colors, select Brace Matching (Rectangle), and set to the desired color.

#98 Turn off Intellisense by default

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:45:00 GMT

Just in case you ever need to do this...

Go to Tools - Options - Text Editor - All Languages - General and uncheck Auto List Members and Parameter Information. If you just want to disable intellisense by default for a particular language, go to the Text Editor - <language> - General option page and set the behavior there.

Note that the intellisense commands themselves are not disabled, meaning you can still invoke intellisense via the keyboard shortcut or a toolbar button.

#97 Get syntax highlighting for a given file extension

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:43:00 GMT

On the Tools – Options – Text Editor – File Extension page, you can map a file extension to one of the included editors.

And after mapping the .sara extension to a C# editor, we now get syntax highlight...

There is also an option to map files without extensions to a specific editor.

#96 What does that Automatic Delimiter Highlighting option do?

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:41:00 GMT

Honestly, I had to ask around what this one did. I couldn't remember to save my life.

Automatic Delimiter Highlighting

Whenever you have code construct pairs (that's what the documentation calls them), when you finish typing either the start or end pair, both pairs of words will become bold. To turn off this feature, go to Tools - Options - Text Editor - General

Customizing the Automatic Delimiter Highlighting

You can customize the color for the bolding by going to Tools - Options - Fonts and Colors and selecting Brace Matching (Highlight).

then volia... (i knew that french degree would pay off one day)

???????? --- #95 Third Helping: Visual Studio Tip of the Day Windows Sidebar Gadget --- ????????

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:40:00 GMT

Hey, you know you went back for a third helping at thanksgiving (unless you are my uncle jimmy, who gets 4ths and 5ths on their first pass). So what could follow a Tip of the Day Browser?

How's about a Tip of the Day Windows Sidebar Gadget! Special thanks to Rob Caron for making this happen. I didn't write the gadget... i just supplied the content =P

Hope you all enjoyed your extra servings Turkey Day specials (a week late, but we are all still eating left-overs.)

Docked State

Full Tip Flyout

Undocked (shows last 5 tips)

??????? --- #94 Second Helping: Beth Massi's Visual Studio Tip of the Day Browser --- ????????

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:33:00 GMT

So what Turkey Day was last week? No reason why we can't have a second helping of tip of the day... but as an add-in!

Beth Massi, our VB community expert, wrote a Tip of the Day Browser. But even better, she's got a Let's Build an Add-In walkthrough, which she's demo'ed at the DevTeach conference.

Pretty cool. I know i'm very happy to have an easy way to browse all of my tips. Thanks Beth!!

#93 Use undo to jump the cursor back to the last insertion point

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT

In a previous tip, we learned more than we ever wanted to know about go-back markers. Insertion points are slightly different. They are similar to the go-back markers, but it is anywhere you click the mouse or jump the cursor to. The go-back marker 10 line rule doesn't apply.

To give it a try, just click somewhere, then click somewhere else (or do a find or a goto if you're using the keyboard), then press undo. You'll move back to that previous location.

The option can be found at Tools - Options - Text Editor - General

#92 Jump to the beginning of some selected text when hitting escape

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:28:00 GMT

I hope this tip's title makes sense. The idea is that you select some text and then hit escape. Where do you want the cursor to go?

If you want it to stay where it is, that's the default behavior. But if you want it to jump to the beginning of the selection (i.e. the selection anchor), you need to go to Tools - Options - Text Editor - General and check the Go to selection anchor after escape.

#91 fun with the Find Combo Box

Scott Cate — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:26:00 GMT

It's time for an old favorite from the Visual Studio 2005 days...

Remember How to search using the Ctrl+D Window from one of the earlier tips? Now let's have a little more fun...

Press Ctrl+D to go to the Find Combo Box and then...

Goto a line – type the line number and press Ctrl+G (i like showing this off as how you can do a "go to line" without popping up the go to dialog box)
Goto a file – type the name of the file (either in your project or on the INCLUDE path)and press Ctrl+Shift+G
Set a breakpoint on a function – type the name of the function and press F9
Get help – type the keyword and press F1

And to continue from yesterday's tip on command aliases…

To get a callstack – type “> kb”
To go to a webpage – type “> nav http://www.microsoft.com”