We’re pleased to announce the availability of Coding Faster: Getting More Productive with Microsoft Visual Studio by Zain Naboulsi and Sara Ford.

Expert advice to help you work smarter and increase your productivity with Visual Studio.

Take a detailed look into Visual Studio—and learn practical techniques to help you work more efficiently. This fully revised and expanded version of Visual Studio Tips: 251 Ways to Improve Your Productivity includes a comprehensive collection of tips and shortcuts for working with the code editor, visual designers, searches, debugger, and other features in Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010. You'll gain valuable insights for using this IDE—no matter what your experience level.

Discover how to:

• Change development settings and keyboard mappings to optimize your efficiency
• Save time initiating a new project by creating custom templates
• Uncover secrets for working with the toolbox, commands, and window layouts
• Work with files in more practical ways, such as using the File Tab Channel
• Use the Editor more effectively with tips on selecting and manipulating code
• Apply techniques to help reduce the time you spend debugging code
• Create Visual Studio extensions to increase your development productivity

Table of Contents

Productivity Techniques

1. Chapter 1 Getting Started

   1. 01.01 Running Multiple Versions of Visual Studio Side-By-Side
   2. 01.02 Getting Table of Contents in Visual Studio 2010 Online Help
   3. 01.03 Exporting Your Environment Settings
   4. 01.04 Remove Projects from the Recent Projects List
   5. 01.05 AutoRecover
   6. 01.06 Improving Performance by Changing the Visual Experience in Visual Studio 2010
   7. 01.07 Change Tool Window Animations
   8. 01.08 Importing or Changing Your Environment Settings
   9. 01.09 Change Your Visual Studio Color Scheme
   10. 01.10 Reset All Your Development Settings
   11. 01.11 Customize Your Toolbars in Visual Studio 2010: Toolbars Tab
   12. 01.12 Customize Your Toolbars in Visual Studio 2010: Commands Tab
   13. 01.13 Visual Studio Logging
   14. 01.14 Visual Studio Safe Mode
   15. 01.15 The ResetSettings Switch

2. Chapter 2 Projects and Items

   1. 02.01 Search for Project Templates in the New Project Dialog Box
   2. 02.02 Recent Project Templates in the New Project Dialog Box
   3. 02.03 Using Older Frameworks with Multi-Targeting
   4. 02.04 Create Web Application or Virtual Directory in IIS
   5. 02.05 Multiple Startup Projects
   6. 02.06 Change the Default New Project Location
   7. 02.07 Track Active Item in Solution Explorer
   8. 02.08 Type-Ahead Selection Support in Solution Explorer
   9. 02.09 Using Solution Folders
   10. 02.10 Navigating Property Tabs in the Project Properties
   11. 02.11 Pin a Project to the Recent Projects List
   12. 02.12 Creating Temporary Projects
   13. 02.13 Create Your Own Item Template
   14. 02.14 Roll Your Own Project Template with the Export Template Wizard
   15. 02.15 Organizing Your Custom Item Templates
   16. 02.16 Organizing Your Custom Project Templates
   17. 02.17 Reorganize the Default Item Templates
   18. 02.18 Reorganize the Default Project Templates
   19. 02.19 Change the Templates that Appear in the New Project or Item Dialog Boxes

3. Chapter 3 Getting to Know the Environment

   1. 03.01 Rearrange Windows in Visual Studio 2010 Using the Guide Diamond
   2. 03.02 Dock a Floating Tool Window Back to Its Previous Location
   3. 03.03 Cycle Through Your Open Tool Windows
   4. 03.04 Closing Tool Windows
   5. 03.05 Expand and Collapse All in the Toolbox
   6. 03.06 Searching in the Toolbox
   7. 03.07 Navigate Among Tabs in the Toolbox
   8. 03.08 Window Layouts: The Four Modes
   9. 03.09 Window Layouts: Design, Debug, and Full Screen
   10. 03.10 Working with Tabs in the Toolbox
   11. 03.11 Using Additional Browsers for Web Development
   12. 03.12 Auto-Hide All Tool Windows
   13. 03.13 Showing Hidden Tool Windows with the Auto Hide Channel
   14. 03.14 Moving Tool Windows Around with Your Keyboard
   15. 03.15 Keyboard Access to a Tool Window’s Toolbar
   16. 03.16 Command Prompt History
   17. 03.17 Command Prompt Tab Completion
   18. 03.18 Undock and Dock a Single Tool Window in a Group
   19. 03.19 Understanding Commands: Simple Commands
   20. 03.20 Understanding Commands: Aliases
   21. 03.21 Understanding Commands: Arguments and Switches
   22. 03.22 Testing a Command
   23. 03.23 Understanding Commands: Running Commands
   24. 03.24 Find Keyboard Shortcuts
   25. 03.25 Keyboard Shortcuts: Additional Mapping Schemes
   26. 03.26 Keyboard Shortcuts: Creating New Shortcuts
   27. 03.27 Keyboard Shortcuts: Reset All Your Shortcuts
   28. 03.28 Understanding Commands: Logging Commands
   29. 03.29 Export Your Window Layouts
   30. 03.30 Stop the Toolbox from Auto-Populating from the Solution
   31. 03.31 Using External Tools
   32. 03.32 Create Keyboard Accelerators for External Tools
   33. 03.33 Exporting Your Command Window Aliases and External Tools List
   34. 03.34 Creating and Using a Macro
   35. 03.35 Visual Studio Image Library

4. Chapter 4 Working with Documents

   1. 04.01 Insert Documents to the Right of Existing Tabs
   2. 04.02 Recent Files
   3. 04.03 Working with Documents on Multiple Monitors
   4. 04.04 Navigate Open Document Windows
   5. 04.05 Close the Current Document Window
   6. 04.06 Open a File Location from the File Tab
   7. 04.07 Open the File Menu Drop-Down List from Your Keyboard
   8. 04.08 Using the IDE Navigator
   9. 04.09 Multiple Views of the Same Document
   10. 04.10 Closing Just the Selected Files You Want
   11. 04.11 Understanding the File Open Location
   12. 04.12 Show Previous Versions
   13. 04.13 Using Custom File Extension Associations

5. Chapter 5 Finding Things

   1. 05.01 Repeat Your Last Search
   2. 05.02 Using Quick Find
   3. 05.03 Using a Simple Quick Replace
   4. 05.04 Hide the Quick Find and Quick Replace Tool Window After the First Match
   5. 05.05 Undo Quick Replace and Replace in Files
   6. 05.06 Using the Find Combo Box Keyboard Shortcuts
   7. 05.07 Using Incremental Search
   8. 05.08 Search the Currently Selected String Without the Find Window
   9. 05.09 Find In Files: Find Options
   10. 05.10 Find In Files: Result Options
   11. 05.11 Replace In Files: Basic Options
   12. 05.12 Go To Definition for Cascading Style Sheets
   13. 05.13 How to Use Navigate To
   14. 05.14 Understanding Find Symbol
   15. 05.15 Find Symbol Results Shortcuts
   16. 05.16 Replace in Files: Tagged Expressions
   17. 05.17 Customize Results in Find In Files Searches

6. Chapter 6 Writing Code

   1. 06.01 Zoom In or Out of Text in the Editor Using the Mouse Wheel
   2. 06.02 Zoom In or Out of Text in the Editor
   3. 06.03 How to Keep from Accidentally Copying a Blank Line
   4. 06.04 Make IntelliSense Transparent
   5. 06.05 Cut or Delete the Current Line
   6. 06.06 Using the New IntelliSense: Keywords
   7. 06.07 Using the New IntelliSense: Pascal Case
   8. 06.08 Comment and Uncomment in Web Pages
   9. 06.09 Insert a Blank Line Above or Below the Current Line
   10. 06.10 Transpose Lines, Words, and Characters
   11. 06.11 How to Cycle Through the Clipboard Ring
   12. 06.12 Using the Undo and Redo Stack
   13. 06.13 Undo and Redo Global Actions
   14. 06.14 How to Use Reference Highlighting
   15. 06.15 Moving or Selecting Between Matching Braces (C++, C# Only)
   16. 06.16 Invoke Statement Completion
   17. 06.17 Move Between the Common Tab and All Tab in Statement Completion (VB)
   18. 06.18 Using Parameter Information
   19. 06.19 Using Quick Info
   20. 06.20 Word Completion
   21. 06.21 Drag and Drop Code into the Toolbox
   22. 06.22 Using Smart Tags from the Keyboard
   23. 06.23 Organize Using Statements (C# Only)
   24. 06.24 Switch Between Design and Source in Web Projects
   25. 06.25 Toggle Designer
   26. 06.26 Change the Default View in the HTML Editor
   27. 06.27 Jump Back to the Editor from Just About Anywhere
   28. 06.28 Replacing Text with a Box Selection
   29. 06.29 Pasting the Contents of One Box Selection into Another
   30. 06.30 Pasting a Single Selection into a Box Selection
   31. 06.31 Using Zero-Length Box Selection
   32. 06.32 View White Space
   33. 06.33 Collapsing Your Code with Outlining
   34. 06.34 Using Hide Selection
   35. 06.35 Collapse to Definitions with Outlining
   36. 06.36 Cut, Copy, and Paste Collapsed Code with Outlining
   37. 06.37 Understanding Word Wrap
   38. 06.38 Properties Window Keyboard Shortcuts
   39. 06.39 Document Outline: Web Projects
   40. 06.40 Inserting Code Snippets
   41. 06.41 Surround with a Code Snippet
   42. 06.42 Using Code Snippets
   43. 06.43 HTML Code Snippets
   44. 06.44 JavaScript Code Snippets
   45. 06.45 Using the Code Snippets Manager
   46. 06.46 Insert Quotes When Typing Attribute Values
   47. 06.47 Format the Current Document or Selection (Web)
   48. 06.48 Using the Navigation Bar
   49. 06.49 HTML Editor Tag Navigation
   50. 06.50 Format HTML on Paste
   51. 06.51 Display HTML/CSS Warnings as Errors
   52. 06.52 Updating JScript IntelliSense
   53. 06.53 Using JScript Libraries in Other JScript Files
   54. 06.54 Create New Code Snippets from Existing Ones
   55. 06.55 Understanding the Navigation Stack
   56. 06.56 Navigate Backward and Navigate Forward Using Go Back Markers
   57. 06.57 Select from the Current Cursor Location to the Last Go Back Marker
   58. 06.58 Track Changes in the Editor
   59. 06.59 Edit Read-Only Files
   60. 06.60 Choosing CSS Versions
   61. 06.61 Understanding Tag Specific Options

7. Chapter 7 Debugging

   1. 07.01 Setting a Breakpoint with Code
   2. 07.02 Using Ctrl+Alt+B to Open the Breakpoints Window
   3. 07.03 Adding Labels to Breakpoints
   4. 07.04 Enable or Disable All Breakpoints
   5. 07.05 TODO Comments in the Task List
   6. 07.06 Create Custom Tokens for the Task List
   7. 07.07 Create Code Shortcuts in the Task List
   8. 07.08 Code Definition Window
   9. 07.09 Save Changes Before Building
   10. 07.10 Navigate Errors in the Error List
   11. 07.11 Ordering and Multicolumn Sorting in Tool Windows
   12. 07.12 Pin a DataTip to Source Code
   13. 07.13 Create a Floating DataTip
   14. 07.14 Adding Comments to a DataTip
   15. 07.15 Use a DataTip to Edit a Value
   16. 07.16 DataTip Value from the Last Debug Session
   17. 07.17 Import and Export DataTips
   18. 07.18 Using the Call Hierarchy
   19. 07.19 Searching Breakpoints
   20. 07.20 Breakpoint Hit Count
   21. 07.21 Set a Breakpoint on a Function
   22. 07.22 Set a Simple Breakpoint Condition
   23. 07.23 Set a Complex Breakpoint Condition
   24. 07.24 Setting a Breakpoint Filter
   25. 07.25 Setting a Tracepoint in Source Code
   26. 07.26 Import and Export Breakpoints
   27. 07.27 Run to Cursor
   28. 07.28 Using the Exception Assistant
   29. 07.29 Use a Specific Port for the Development Server (Web Applications)
   30. 07.30 Application and Page Level Tracing
   31. 07.31 The Watch Window: Watching and Changing Values
   32. 07.32 Understanding QuickWatch
   33. 07.33 The Watch Window: Visualizers
   34. 07.34 The Watch Window: Refreshing Data
   35. 07.35 The Watch Window: Adding Watches from Variable Windows
   36. 07.36 Create Folders in Class View
   37. 07.37 Search in Class View
   38. 07.38 Synchronize Your Class View
   39. 07.39 The Misnamed and Misunderstood Object Browser
   40. 07.40 The Object Browser: Setting the Browsing Scope
   41. 07.41 The Object Browser: Navigation and References
   42. 07.42 The Exceptions Dialog Box
   43. 07.43 Setting a Breakpoint in the Call Stack Window
   44. 07.44 Setting a Tracepoint in the Call Stack Window
   45. 07.45 Using the WPF Tree Visualizer
   46. 07.46 Understanding Break All Processes When One Process Breaks
   47. 07.47 Changing Context in the Locals Window
   48. 07.48 Understanding the Autos Window

Extensions for Visual Studio

1. Chapter 8 Visual Studio Extensions

   1. Introducing Visual Studio Extensions
   2. 08.01 Create Themes Using All Visual Studio Elements
   3. 08.02 Insert Images into Your Code
   4. 08.03 Add Visual Guidelines to Your Code
   5. 08.04 Get More IntelliSense in Your XAML Editor
   6. 08.05 Sync the Solution Explorer to the Current File
   7. 08.06 Add PowerCommands Options to the IDE
   8. 08.07 Use Emacs Commands in the Editor
   9. 08.08 Submit to “The Daily WTF”
   10. 08.09 Diff Files Using the Editor
   11. 08.10 Run Windows PowerShell Within the IDE
   12. 08.11 Visualize OData in a Graphical View
   13. 08.12 Run VIM Commands in the Editor
   14. 08.13 Check Spelling in Your Code
   15. 08.14 Zoom Across All Files
   16. 08.15 View Code Blocks Using Vertical Lines
   17. 08.16 Get a Bird’s-Eye View of Your Code in an Editor Margin
   18. 08.17 Build Projects from the Windows 7 Taskbar
   19. 08.18 Triple-Click to Select an Entire Line
   20. 08.19 Create Regular Expressions Within Your Code
   21. 08.20 Get More Productivity Tools in the IDE
   22. 08.21 Create and Find Code Snippets
   23. 08.22 Document Your Code with Three Keystrokes
   24. 08.23 Customize Visual Studio Using Windows PowerShell