Tip #0 Know your Keybindings! General Development Settings
Searching Tips
Tip #1 How to behold the power of incremental search
Command: Edit.IncrementalSearch
Shortcut: Ctrl+i
Tip #2 Ctrl+F3 to search for currently-selected word
Command: Edit.FindNextSelected
Tip #3 F3 to search for last thing you searched for
Command: Edit.FindNext
Tip #4 Customize what files to find in
Find In Files – Look in – Choose Search Folders
Tip #5 You can use a reg hack for customizing search results
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Find String Find=$f$e($l,$c):$t\r\n
Editing Tips
Tip #6 How not to accidentally copy a blank line
Tools – Options – Text Editor – All Languages – General, Uncheck Apply cut or copy to blank lines
Tip #7 How to cycle through the Clipboard ring
Command: Edit.CycleClipboardRing
Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+v
Tip #8 How to use box/column selection in the editor
Command: Edit.LineUpColumnExtend, Edit.LineDownColumnExtend, Edit.CharRightColumnExtend, Edit.CharLeftColumnExtend
Shortcut: Shift+Alt+Arrow
Tip #9 You can copy a file’s full path / open windows explorer from the file tab channel
Command: File.CopyFullPath
Tip #10 Drag and drop code onto the toolbox’s general tab
Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+x
Tip #11 You can use Ctrl+. to show a smart tag
Command: View.ShowSmartTag
Tip #12 You can insert a snippet by pressing Tab Tab
Type in snippet shortcut, then press Tab Tab
Customizing Tips
Tip #13 You can create temp or throw away projects
Tools – Options – Projects and Solutions – General, uncheck Save new projects when created
Tip #14 Change text editor font size via keyboard (Accessibility macros)
Command: Macros.Samples.Accessibility.DecreaseTextEditorFontSize
Command: Macros.Samples.Accessibility.IncreaseTextEditorFontSize
Tip #15 How to open a file without any UI
Ctrl+/ (or whatever Tools.GoToCommandLine is bound to)
alias fo file.openfile
fo <filename>
Tip #16 Guidelines in the editor registry key hack
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Text Editor String RBG(128,0,0) 5, 20
Tip #17 You can create a macro for your import/export settings
Tools – customize – commands – macros – drag and drop macro to toolbar
Tip #18 How to not show the start page (or have the last loaded solution open)
Tools – Options – Environment – Startup, At Startup
Tip #19 File tab channel registry hack
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0 key, you can create a DWORD UseMRUDocOrdering = 1
Tip #20 How to show Misc Files Project to keep your files around
tools – options – environment – documents, show miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer
Tip #21 Edit project file from within IDE (unload project)
Unload project, edit project, reload project
Debugging Tips
Tip #22 You can use tracepoints to log stuff in your code
Right-click in indicator margin, select breakpoints, select Insert Tracepoint
Tip #23 How to get the find source dialog back
Solution Properties, under Common Properties – Debug Source Files, Delete Do no look for these source files edit box contents
Tip #24 You can disable the exception assistant
Tools – Options – Debugging – General, uncheck Enable the Exception Assistant