Sara Ford's Weblog

Press Ctrl+T to transpose a character Press Ctrl+Shift+T to transpose a word Press Alt+Shift+T to transpose a line In the above example (where the cursor is placed before the "is" on the commented line "now is the time"), Pressing...

The Visual Studio shell is a big place.  I should know, since I used Visual J++ everyday for a year before joining the team.  As I write these tips, I try to think back to my J++ days to come up with a list of tips and tricks I wish I had known...

Today’s tip was submitted by a blog reader.  I had no clue that you could do this.  Select a line of code, and then right- drag that line to anywhere within your editor (or into another editor window).  Then you’ll get this little menu...

Both the Error List and the Task List have support for multi-column sorting, like secondary sort (and can someone remind me what’s the term for 3rd-ary – the term that comes after secondary).  For example, you want to sort all Tasks (or Errors) by...

The Ctrl+D Window is another way of doing a Quick Find with the scope limited to the current document.  Press Ctrl+D to reach the Find Combo Window.  Now, type whatever search string and press Enter to do a forward search or Shift + Enter to...

In the standard toolbar, there’s the Navigate Backward and Navigate Forward buttons. In the editor, the Navigate Backward is bound to Ctrl+minus and Navigate Forward is bound to Ctrl+Shift+minus.  I find these commands most helpful when navigating...

I’m hoping this pop quiz is a little more challenging. Below is a picture of the right portion of the File Tab Channel.  I’ve circled the drop down button that drops down the list of open files. Now, under what condition does the icon change to having...

Christopher Keroack, the Test Manager for the Windows Accessibility team, asked me if I could post the following: What do you think about desktop customization? This can either be out of necessity (e.g. making fonts bigger, making UI easier to click...

Halo 2 kicks butt. Yep, I was one of those waiting in line an hour before the company store opened to ensure I would be playing Halo 2 when I got home from work.  Alas, I was only able to play an hour last night. ::sobs:: Things I like about Halo...

Do you have any software testing topics you want to hear more about? Here are a few suggestions that I’ve already received from readers: How do you go about automating? How much is automated and how much is manual? How does QA fit into the product lifecycle...

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...

I just got confirmation tonight that my family in Waveland, MS (my hometown) survived the direct hit from Hurricane Katrina.  My aunt and uncle drove into the Mississippi Gulf Coast somehow from Dallas and were able to get a message back to us. My...

Given the successful response rate of the first poll, I’m going to ask a similar and last question.  I use VS on my primary mointor.  On the secondary monitor, I use IE, test case writing and database tools, and the following VS tool windows...

For me, this is yet another one of those, "why can’t I ever remember this tip?!  It would save me so much time!  argh!" You can cycle through the past 20 items you’ve either cut or copied onto the clipboard via Ctrl+Shift+V. ...

I’ve been coming up with little songs to keep sane as I post a daily tip for Visual Studio.  Beth Massi swears she’ll catch me on tape singing these one day.  One of them is to the tune of Dunkin’ Donuts (i think it’s their jingle) of "gotta...

Argh! I wish I had found this one in time for the book. A second edition, maybe? I’d hate to be known as a one-hit wonder. I’m sure there are more people who could use scholarship money. Ever did a Find in Files and was annoyed that Visual Studio showed...

If you need to create small projects to try things out, or not sure how you want to setup things before you save, there’s a tools options for this.  With this option enabled, the New Project Dialog Location and other fields will be gone.  In...

At the INETA party during TechEd 09, I told my “Uncle Jimmy Stories” for nearly 4 hours. Since I’ve had quite a few people ask me to blog these stories (and even more ask me to share photos), I’d thought I’d share my “kick-off” story of my childhood ...

And as I’ve said time and time again on this blog, it’s really the simple things.  I keep forgetting about this tip, until i see this shortcut chord and have to look up what it does. Use Shift+ESC to close the currently-selected and active tool window...

I didn’t know about incremental search until someone showed me.  Now I can’t live without it.  Press Ctrl+I Start typing the text you are searching for.  note: you’ll see the cursor jump to the first match, highlighting the current search...

Did you know that Visual Studio offers two different selection models Stream and Box? Stream selection is what everyone is familiar with using Shift+Arrow Key.  Box selection allows you to manually select columns and lines at the same time. ...

The June 28 th edition of BusinessWeek has an article called Blogging with the Boss’s Blessing which features me and my blog. BusinessWeek interviewed me last week to discuss why I mix personal information (how I want an autographed photo of Richard Dean...

Let me remind you to view my disclaimer if you haven’t already. These are my thoughts as I sit here on a Tuesday evening watching T.V., and I reserve the right to change my mind on how I view things at any time. Most likely, my thoughts will have...

Definitions I’ve seen the terms “Test Plan” and “Test Specification” mean slightly different things over the years. In a formal sense (at this given point in time for me), we can define the terms as follows: Test Specification – a detailed summary of...

I’ve had a few questions come back to me about disabling the IDE Navigator , aka the Ctrl-Tab Dialog. Here’s how to do it: Open Tools – Options – Keyboard Under “Show commands containing:”, type in “Window.NextDocumentWindowNav” Press the Remove button...