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Sara Ford's WebLog


My adventures in sharing Microsoft source code

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April 2008 - Posts

Did you know… How the External Tools Tokens Work? - #205
Updated 30Apr2008: Note the binary directory is for Visual Studio 2008. I’ve hinted at a few of the external tools tokens, but let’s explore a little more.  I think most of these are self-explanatory, and the help documentation explores each in depth, Read More...
Did you know… you can have your External Tool’s text displayed in the Output Window? - #204
At the bottom of the External Tools dialog, you’ll see more options for customizing the external tool within visual studio.  Today’s tip is about the Use output window option.  The idea here is you’re running a .bat file, and you want to track Read More...
Did you know… You can rearrange the list of external tools and create mnemonics? - #203
Continuing with the newly added notepad tool from Friday’s tip , you can use the External Tools dialog to sort your list of external tools as they will appear on the Tools menu. To the right you’ll find the Move up and Move down. You can specify a mnemonic Read More...
Did you know… You can add your own External Tools to the list? - #202
Go to the Tools – External Tools dialog, and you’ll see the Add   button.  Clicking Add will create a [New Tools 1] placeholder.  Let’s add Notepad as an external tool by calling it “Notepad” as the Title .  For the command , this Read More...
Did you know… You can run external tools within Visual Studio? - #201
It’s the External Tools Tip of the Day series!! Okay I have to admit, I’m not the local expert in External Tools, so I could really use help with examples.  I can talk about the functionality all day long, but nothing is better than real world examples. Read More...
Did you know… You can bind the show “Errors”, “Warnings”, and “Messages” buttons to keyboard shortcuts? - #200
WOW!  Tip number 200.  There are no words, except for “what a difference a day makes.” I’m so excited about today’s tip.  (not because that it is tip #200 – this was purely coincidental), but because I accidentally found it while browsing Read More...
Did you know… You cannot enable the “stop search” on the Output Window? - #199
You may have noticed the “Stop Search” command on the Output Window context menu.  So, I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out how to enable this command, before i broke down and emailed the developer.  Apparently you can’t enabled it.  Read More...
Did you know… You can redirect debug messages to the output window? - #198
Depending on your environment settings (like the Visual Basic Default Settings), you may have noticed that the Output Window’s debug content is redirected to the Immediate window instead.  Or maybe you want the output window’s debug content to go Read More...
Did you know... You can use F8 and Shift+F8 to navigate among errors in the output window - #197
In the General Development Settings, F8 and Shift+F8 are bound to Edit.GoToNextLocation and Edit.GoToPreviousLocation. If you have the Error List open, F8 and Shift+F8 will take you directly to the error in question by highlighting that part of the code.  Read More...
Did you know... You can customize the color scheme in the Output Window - #196
On the Tools - Options - Environment - Fonts and Colors page, in the Show Settings For combo box, there's an option for Output Window. When selected, you'll be able to customize the standard plain, selected, and inactive selection text options colors, Read More...
Did you know... you can double-click messages in the Output Window to jump to that location in the code? - #195
if you double-click on any error or warning in the output window, you will jump directly to that location in the file (or the closest equivalent).   There's also a button on the output window toolbar that allows you to do the same thing, just Read More...
Will Twitter for Microsoft MVPs
This week is the MVP Summit at Microsoft. When i'm not deleting email or getting my 4 hours of sleep (thanks upstairs neighbors), i'm hanging out with our MVPs, listening to their feedback, learning more about their projects. Thursday afternoon members Read More...
Did you know... You can enable Word Wrap in the Output Window? - #194
For those following the Tip of the Day series, I've run out of interesting tips with the Toolbox.  If you have a toolbox tip, please send it to me! The output window has an icon on the toolbar that allows you to enable Word Wrap.  I personally Read More...
Did you know... You can create new Toolbox tabs? - #193
Combining this week's tips, you can create your own toolbox tabs to store practically whatever you want in them.  Now, for that upcoming presentation, you can create your own tab by choosing the Add Tab on the toolbox context menu and adding content Read More...
I've been Microspotted for open source!
Microspotting - Like the paparazzi, but for geeks.  Here's my interview with Ariel, where we talk about community, blogging, CodePlex, agile development, and of course open source:   Sara Ford on what Microsoft can learn from open source   Read More...
Did you know... You can Ctrl+C copy and Ctrl+V paste controls into other Toolbox tabs? - #192
Yesterday's tip talked about how you can drag and drop code from within the General Toolbox.  Today, we're going to talk about doing the same thing with controls.  Obviously, you can use the mouse to drag and drop to a new tab, and even do a Read More...
Did you know... You can drag and drop code onto the Toolbox General tab? - #191
Today's tip is especially helpful if you are going to write code in a presentation.  Now you don't have to code in front of everyone, but rather have it all typed up on the side, ready to go! You've probably noticed the Toolbox General tab showing Read More...
Did you know... You can do a "show all" to find your "hiding" toolbox controls - #190
Today's tip comes directly from the developer who works on the toolbox.  He told me he sees a lot of questions where people are trying to figure out why a particular control isn't there, especially when they've just recently added controls.  Read More...
Did you know... Why does each Toolbox group have a Pointer control, and what does it actually do? - #189
You've probably noticed how the pointer control is sticky at the top of each tab group.  This is because whenever a control is selected in the Toolbox, the mouse pointer automatically becomes a "drag" for that control, meaning that you Read More...
Did you know... You can sort items in the Toolbox alphabetically? - #188
Although most of the time, the controls are listed in Alphabetical order.  But, if you ever need to do a reset, you can bring up the Toolbox Content menu, and select Sort Items Alphabetically. Technorati Tags: VS2005Tip , VS2008Tip Read More...
BlogHer Business Conference 2008 - Trip Report
Just spent my first 3 days in New York City, attending the BlogHer Business Conference .  When asked how did I enjoy NYC, I recalled the scene from the first Matrix movie, where Neo is crossing the very busy street in the crosswalk during orientation.  Read More...
Announcing the Japanese Visual Studio 2008 Tip of the Day
I've created a new blog to host the translated Tip of the Day.  Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to host the localized content on this blog without it being syndicated into the main RSS feed as i had originally thought.  The Japanese Visual Read More...
Did you know... You can use Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down to move among the various control groups in the Toolbox - #187
You could page up and down throughout the toolbox to reach the previous or next control group, or you could just do Ctrl+Up Arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow. Technorati Tags: VS2005Tip , VS2008Tip Read More...
今日のワンポイント : ウィンドウを分割する方法と新しいウィンドウを作成する方法 - #004
日本語の Visual Studio 2008 ワンポイントは、新しい場所からご利用いただけます。 http://blogs.msdn.com/vstipsjpn 現在のウィンドウを分割するには、2 つの方法があります。 メニュー バーの [ウィンドウ] をクリックし、[分割] をクリックします。 マウスを使用して、ドキュメントのスクロール バーの上部にある分割コントロールを動かします。 ただし、この方法では横方向にしか分割できません。縦方向に分割する必要がある場合は (上の図の Program.cs:2 Read More...
Did you know... You can use '*' to Expand All and '/' to Collapse All in the Toolbox - #186
These are specific to the Toolbox.  Pressing * (Shift+8 on ENU keyboards) will expand everything in the Toolbox and pressing / (note it is just the / key, and not Shift+/ as that's a ?) will collapse everything. Pressing * will expand And Pressing Read More...
今日のワンポイント : スペースを表示する方法 - #003
日本語の Visual Studio 2008 ワンポイントは、新しい場所からご利用いただけます。 http://blogs.msdn.com/vstipsjpn これは単純ながら非常に便利な機能です。特に、私がエディタのテストを行ったときのように、スペースを確認する必要がある場合に役立ちます。チームの開発者がこの機能を使っているのを最初に見たときは「げっ」と思いましたが、今では、スペースかタブかをテストするときでなくても、この機能から離れられなくなりました。 メニュー バーからは、[編集] メニューの Read More...
Did you know... You can switch between Icon View and List Item View in the toolbox? - #185
And yet another i had no idea you could do this until someone showed me.  By having just the Icon View, you can save a lot of space within the Toolbox. For each toolbox grouping, you can customize whether to show the flat list of controls and their Read More...
今日のワンポイント : エディタでのボックス選択/列選択の方法 - #002
日本語の Visual Studio 2008 ワンポイントは、新しい場所からご利用いただけます。 http://blogs.msdn.com/vstipsjpn Visual Studio には、ストリーム選択とボックス選択という 2 つの選択方法があることをご存知でしたか。 ストリーム選択とは、 Shift キーと方向キーを組み合わせたおなじみの選択方法です。 ボックス選択では、列と行を同時に手動で選択できます。 Shift + Alt キーを押しながら方向キーを押してみてください。ボックス選択がどのようなものか、すぐにおわかりいただけると思います。切り取り、コピー、貼り付けも実行できますが、テキストの選択を開始した位置は覚えておきましょう。記憶テストを思い出しますね。 Read More...
Did you know... You can display Guidelines in the Editor - #184
My most popular tip of all time is Guidelines. It was one of my very first tips about Visual Studio. You can read more about Guidelines and all of the comments (!!!) here on the original Guidelines post . To enable Guidelines: Warning: This requires modifying Read More...
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