Sara Ford's Weblog

Remembering keyboard shortcuts can often be difficult but they can also save you quite a bit of time.  If you go to Tools/Customize and check the option for Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips, then you’ll be reminded of the keyboard shortcut for any...

I’ve already posted about the import / export settings feature, but then I saw this MSDN Forum thread .  I figured this would make for a better tip of the day than just a generic explanation of how import / export settings works, especially for people...

Jason asked a great question yesterday, so i’m making the answer today’s tip of the day. Put the snippets out on a share.  Then in Tools – Code Snippet Manager, press the Add button and give it the UNC share. Now go to Tools – Import Export Settings...

Too often I see people struggling to get the font size just right in the Editor for presentations.  They go to Tools Options Fonts and Colors, change the size, close the dialog, but the size isn’t big enough (or it’s too big), so they have to go...

One of the big new features of the Visual Studio 2005 release for the Editor team and for the language teams is Code Snippets.  To use code snippets in the editor, bring up the context menu and choose “Insert Snippet” or "Surrounds With"...

Update:   Sean has a much better workaround at http://blogs.msdn.com/vseditor/archive/2005/04/26/412307.aspx Sometimes being a QA reminds me of when I was a soccer referee – you’re only as good as your last call or the last bug you missed. ...

I wrote the Accessibility Macros for Visual Studio 2005, my proud 131 line contribution to the product.  There are 4 macros Increase / Decrease Text Editor Font size incrementally – works great when bound to a keyboard shortcut Update the Text Editor...

Go to Tools – Options – Keyboard and set “Keyboard mapping scheme” to either Brief or Emacs. Press OK. Whenever you are in the Editor, you’ll experience the editor emulation. To get back to the Visual Studio defaults, just set the “Keyboard mapping...

Here’s an old post of mine about the new Tool Window docking model, the File Tab Channel, and the IDE Navigator in Visual Studio 2005. http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2004/05/14/132065.aspx

This tip is for Visual Studio 2005.  We have a new feature called the IDE Navigator.  When Ctrl+Tab is bound to Window.NextDocumentWindowNav, the IDE Navigator will pop up, showing all available tool windows and files.  You’ll need to hold...

I want to put together a list of recommended blog reading for my team. Ideally, I’m looking for blogs that talk about features we own, for good and for bad. Here’s a quick breakout of what the VS Core team owns: MS Build Creating Projects...

I’ve had a really bad cold since my birthday when I hiked Tiger Mountain. 5 weeks later, I’m still coughing. A week ago, I noticed some pain at a specific point in my ribs, like a side-stitch when you run too hard. Saturday, I went to the doctor for more...

This tip is for Visual Studio 2005. A feature near and dear to my heart is the VSSettings feature, codename profiles.  This was my first feature I owned at M0 – meaning I was the QA while it was being designed.  I owned it for well over a year...

Now that Beta 2 has been released , I can finally talk about Beta 2 tips and tricks.   And, here’s how to get them within Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 itself. Go to Tools – Options – Startup and change the Start Page news channel to http://blogs...

Suppose you need to increase the font size of the code when you go to print.  Or you need to customize colors before printing them.  Go to Tools – Options – Fonts and Colors page.  Choose “Printing” in the Show settings for combo box. ...

One of my coworkers in Visual Studio has created this really cool tool for creating and testing Regular Expressions.  I’ve just recently started using .NET Regular Expressions in my Editor testing, so take my word for it that this tool greatly helps...

This tip is for Visual Studio .NET 2003.  Although it will work in Visual Studio 2005, there are easier ways to save your favorite window layouts – which is a tip to be told at another time. There are four different window layout states Design view...

To print line numbers in Visual Studio .NET 2003, go to File – Page Setup, and check “Line numbers” in the lower-left hand corner.  The line numbers will appear in the file, regardless whether you have line numbers displayed in the editor. In Visual...

Since I got 15 minutes to spare waiting to leave for karate practice, I might as well blog about how things are going there.  I was supposed to test last Wednesday, but unfortunately the cough suppressant I was prescribed contained a drug I’m allergic...

In Visual Studio .NET 2003, the object browser allows you to browse all assemblies referenced by your current project.  In Whidbey, the object browser provides slightly different functionality, so stay tuned for Whidbey tips and tricks once beta...

These sets of tips are for Visual Studio .NET 2003.  In Whidbey, bookmarks have a lot more functionality, including their own Bookmarks tool window.  But, I’ll wait until Beta 2 comes out to talk about the bookmarks window. To toggle a bookmark...

Ctrl+L will cut the current line (including EOL) Ctrl+W will select the current word Let me know if you like this style of hints (just giving you keyboard shortcut tips and tricks), and I’ll do more of them. Happy Editing!

Just like all the other tips, this one will work with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2005/04/07/did-you-know-how-to-use-the-watch-window-to-change-a-variables-value/

Another one of those “how did I never see this before” and “now I can’t live without it”. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2005/04/06/did-you-know-how-to-quickly-navigate-forward-and-navigate-backward-within...

The Visual Studio shell is a big place. I should know, since I used Visual J++ everyday for a year before joining the team. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2005/04/05/did-you-know-how-to-bind-keyboard-shortcuts-to-commands/