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Sara Ford's Weblog

My adventures embracing open source on CodePlex and at Microsoft

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Did you know... How to create a command alias? - #90

To create an alias, open up the Command Window (or anywhere you can type in VS commands) and type in something along the lines of

alias GobblesGobblesGobbles help.about

Command Window creating aliases

and now running GobblesGobblesGobbles from the VS command window will pop up the Help About menu.  I will award bonus points if you can figure out the Gobbles reference.  =)

But let's explore a more practical application....

alias se View.SolutionExplorer

Now you can just type se to jump to the solution explorer.  For this particular example, the idea is you can be typing in the editor, press Ctrl+/ to jump to that Find window that can act as a command window, and type in se.

Actually, you've probably already used one of the predefined aliases before. Debug.Print is alias to '?'.  To see the full list of aliases, type in

alias

predefined aliases

Lastly, to reset your command window aliases back to defaults, type in

alias /reset

Reset aliases warning prompt

or just simply use the /delete switch to delete a particular alias, like alias se /delete.

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Posted: Friday, November 23, 2007 3:00 AM by saraford

Comments

Ned Hamilton said:

I love your VS tips but I have a minor problem that I can't seem to find any answers to.

I teach C# and my students use VC# 2008 Express on HP tablets. But I use VS2008 Professional. So I sometimes don't know when some of the neat tips you show aren't available on the Express additions.

Is there a source for what features aren't available on the Express versions? I discovered by borrowing one of the student's tablets, that in Express, a command window isn't available and that I can't connect to SQL Express (only can use it with a local db file). It's embarassing to show something to the students only to have them tell me that it doesn't work on their tablets.

# November 23, 2007 10:54 AM

sean said:

Been following along for awhile now - this one was worth it!

# November 23, 2007 1:38 PM

saraford said:

Hi Ned,

Thanks for the feedback.  When i first started drafting these tips back during the summer, i actually tried to list which versions they were applicable for, but it took way too long.  (you wouldn't believe how long it takes me to write these tips! =)  Some express versions will support some features, whereas other express versions don't.  For the sake of time, i decided to base all of the tips on the professional versions.

Let me do some research here on how to provide what's available in which version.

thanks,

-sara

# November 23, 2007 3:59 PM

Sara Ford's WebLog said:

It's time for an old favorite from the Visual Studio 2005 days... Remember How to search using the Ctrl+D

# January 15, 2008 1:04 AM

Noticias externas said:

Today's tip was co-authored with a tip of the day reader.  The idea is you just want to press

# March 4, 2008 6:50 AM

Visual Studio 2008 ワンポイント said:

さて、今日は Visual Studio 2005 のころから人気のある機能を取り上げましょう。 以前のワンポイントでお話しした Ctrl + D キーのウィンドウを使用して検索する方法 を覚えていますか。その機能でもう少し遊んでみましょう。

# August 13, 2008 7:36 AM

Секреты Visual Studio said:

Чтобы создать псевдоним, откройте Окно команд (или в любом месте Visual Studio, где вы можете вводить

# February 22, 2009 6:06 AM
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