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... 10.0Find, String Find results format = $f$e($l,$c):$t
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
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftVisualStudio10.0Profile, 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