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Sara Ford's Weblog

My adventures embracing open source on CodePlex and at Microsoft

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May 2008 - Posts

Did you know… Why the Object Browser has so many commands you can bind to (and how to create a keyboard shortcut to clear the search results) - #227
As I’ve been writing the Object Browser Tip Series, I noticed that there were a lot of commands available under Tools – Options – Environment - Keyboard...  Just type in ObjectBrowser and you'll see what i mean. Technically, this is a bug, since Read More...
Did you know… What the “Default Presentation Language” setting does the Object Browser settings? - #226
In yesterday’s tip , I talk about how you can export and import your Object Browser settings.  If you examined the .vssettings file for just the Object Browser Settings category in Import / Export Settings, you may have seen <PropertyValue name="DefaultPresentationLanguage">VB</PropertyValue> Read More...
3 Talks at TechEd 2008 – Wish Me Luck!
Tuesday starts TechEd 2008, where I’ll find myself presenting three(!) talks.  The third talk came a few weeks ago when Noah Coad became unavailable to do the Visual Studio 2008 IDE Tips and Tricks talk.  Being the tireless community people Read More...
Did you know… You can export all your Object Browser customizations in a .vssettings file? - #225
Over these past couple of weeks, we’ve taken a close look at customizing your Object Browser experience, from sorting to searching to filtering, among other options. Your customizations can be saved out to a .vssetings file via the Tools – Import / Export Read More...
Did you know… The Object Browser Supports Type-Ahead Selection? - #224
Today’s tip you’ve probably tried on your own, just in hopes that it would work.  But just in case you never thought about it, like in the Solution Explorer ( which works btw, and i’m still singing my tip of the day songs), yes, the Object Browser Read More...
Did you know… You can do a “Find Symbol” search (Shift+F12) in the Object Browser? - #223
Just like yesterday’s tip that talked about going to an object or function’s definition, you can find all the references of what you have selected in the Object Browser. In the General Development Settings, Edit.FindAllReferences is bound to Shift+F12.  Read More...
Did you know… You can use F12 in the Object Browser to go to the definition of whatever’s selected? - #222
On the context menu of both the Member Pane (right panel) and the Object Pane (left panel), you’ll see the Go To Definition command.  You can use this command to navigate directly into the code where whatever you have selected is defined (or you’ll Read More...
Did you know… You can sort objects and members in the Object Browser? - #221
On the context menu for either the Object Pane (left) or Member Pane (top-right), you can sort by four different options: Alphabetically, Object Type, Object Access, or Group by Object Type. Alphabetically is self-explanatory.  Object type will have Read More...
Did you know… There are two primary means of searching for objects in the Object Browser? - #220
Now we’ll move to the second toolbar in the Object Browser, which is all about searching.    But the search scope depends on what you have selected in the Browse combo box, or in other words the Object Browser Scope .  For example, if you Read More...
Did you know… You can show Extension Methods in the Object Browser - #219
This tip is new for Visual Studio 2008. You can learn more about extension methods in the documentation for both Visual Basic and C#. In the Object Browser Settings, you’ll see the Show Extension Methods option. Now, when you have an extension method Read More...
Did you know… How to stop displaying all inherited members in the Object Browser member pane - #218
The next option in the Object Browser Settings is the Show Inherited Members . When enabled, you’ll see all inherited members, including those inherited from System.Object.   When disabled, you’ll see a much shorter list. Technorati Tags: VS2005Tip Read More...
Did you know… What consists of “other” in Show Other Members in Object Browser Settings? - #217
A few tips ago, I gave the documentation a hard time about now having an example.  But in today’s tip, the documentation is now “tip of the hat” instead of “wag of the finger,” a reference to The Colbert Report . For today’s tip, the documentation Read More...
Did you know… You can mark methods and types as Hidden, so they don’t appear in Intellisense or in the Object Browser? - #216
Today’s tip is a continuation from yesterday’s tip which talked about how to hide or show hidden members and types in the Object Browser.  So today’s tip is how to actually make something hidden or hidable. In the System.ComponentModel namespace, Read More...
Saviez-vous que Visual Studio Tip of the Day is now in French!
Update: after some email debates between the verbs “Savoir” and “Connaitre” (the French verb “to know”), i’ve updated this blog title with “Savoir”.  For those of you how studied French, you probably remember that Savoir is to know something whereas Read More...
Did you know… You can hide or show hidden members and types in the Object Browser? - #215
I never officially tested the object browser, but rather played back-up tester, in case someone went on vacation, needed help analyzing failures during a full test pass, etc. So for most of these tips, i’ve been browsing their test cases and documentation Read More...
Did you know… You can choose whether to show base types in the Object Browser? - #214
In the Object Browser Settings, there’s the Show Base Types option. For the example below, Class1 inherits from ClassBase.  When this option is enabled, under Class1 you’ll see the “Base Types” folder.  If you’ve been wondering how to get rid Read More...
Did you know… You can customize both your object pane and members pane in the Object Browser? - #213
For the next several tips, we’re going to take apart the Object Browser Settings for what appears in the object browser. The first set of options control your View preference in the Object pane, which is either by Namespace or by Containers .  Think Read More...
Did you know… You can create a keyboard shortcut for adding references to a solution from the Object Browser? - #212
This is really a continuation from yesterday’s tip, but wanted to call it out as a separate tip. I was kinda surprised to see it in the list of commands, but then again, one can never have too many keyboard shortcuts =) As far as binding this to a keyboard Read More...
First .NET User Group created back home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
It feels weird not to append a # at the end of a blog title.  Oh Tip of the Day, what have you done to me? Anyways… I’m really excited to see a .NET User Group get created back home.  Shout outs to Keith Elder and Aubrey Cote for getting this Read More...
Did you know… The Object Browser has a navigate forward and navigate back? - #211
Another set of buttons on the Object Browser toolbar belongs to Navigate Forward and Navigate Back. The pages you visit within the object browser are saved as a MRU (Most Recently Used). This alone is somewhat exciting, but what really makes it exciting Read More...
Did you know… You can add references to your solution directly from the Object Browser - #210
Let’s say that you find the component that you want to add to your solution.  Typically, you’ll go to the solution explorer, right-click on the project node and select Add References, bring up the Add Reference Dialog, and you know how the rest goes. Read More...
Did you know… You can create a custom list of components for the Object Browser - #209
Expanding a little more on yesterday’s tip, you can create a custom components list for the Object Browser. There are two ways to reach the custom components list dialog.  Either clicking that little “…” browse button next to the combo box   Read More...
I’m looking for questions for a Visual Studio Factoid
Once again Rob Caron has sent me on a quest.  This time it is to put together a Visual Studio factoid – a list of historical facts about VS, like Why is the executable devenv.exe instead of visualstudio.exe? Is the Visual Studio logo an infinity Read More...
Did you know… You can specify to only show components in your Solution in the Object Browser? - #208
By default, the Object Browser shows you all the components in the latest .NET Framework version.  But sometimes you don’t need to know about the entire world, and just want to focus on the objects in your solution. In the upper right-hand corner Read More...
Did you know… Ctrl+Alt+J opens the Object Browser - #207
It’s time to move on to the Object Browser… You can use Ctrl+Alt+J to open the Object Browser.  If this keyboard shortcut does not work for you, check what View.ObjectBrowser is bound to under Tools Options – Environment – Keyboard.   Technorati Read More...
Did you know… you can prompt for arguments when you run an external tool - #206
And to finish the customization of the external tools series, you can prompt for arguments, in case you need to enter or edit values each time you run the tool.  So now, if i need to specify which file i want Notepad to open, i’m prompted for the Read More...
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