Setting up SQL Server Management Studio for Teaching or Demos

My friend Paul Randal posted a blog entry on how he sets up SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for demonstrations. I do a lot of teaching and presenting as well, and I’ve set up my environment in a similar way to help the audience see what I’m doing, and follow along.

You can do most everything in the SSMS menu of Tools | Options. This is what I change from the default settings:

Environment, General: At Startup: Open Object Explorer and New Query

Environment, Fonts and Colors: All fonts set to 12. Item Background set to a pale yellow color.

Text Editor, Settings: Word Wrap, Show visual glyphs

Text Editor, Display: Line Numbers

Query Results, SQL Server, Results to Grid: Display results in a separate tab

Query Results, SQL Server, Results to Grid: Switch to results tab

Note: Even with this setup, I still use Zoomit. It’s a free utility (more here) which allows you not only to make the screen much larger wherever your mouse pointer is, but allows you to type, draw and even set a timer for breaks in your class. If you teach or present, get it, learn it and use it. If you see a presenter that isn’t using it, make them stop and set it up. There’s a minimal install and it takes seconds to understand.