Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

Steve Horn — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:50:17 GMT

You can alternatively use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+A to pop the command window, and then type "open <filename>". Auto-complete is provided in this interface as well.

MSDN Blog Postings » Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:42:47 GMT

PingBack from http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2008/03/04/did-you-know-how-to-open-a-file-in-the-solution-without-using-either-a-tool-window-or-a-dialog-164/

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

StevenLJackson1 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:26:11 GMT

Hi Sara! I love this series of posts! Even though I'm a keyboard junkie, you've actually shown me one or two things that I *didn't* know! ;-)

Quick question: I remember from an early version of Visual Studio (or DevStudio as it may have been) when I was doing C++ development that I could highlight a file name (such as in a #include statement), press Ctrl-Alt-G (or something close to that key combination) and have the highlighted file open up in the IDE.

Do you know if that is still an option? I haven't been able to find it (not sure what the command would be called). Maybe it's just for C++ developers, so now that I've moved on to C# I don't have that option available to me?

Thanks!

Steve

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

small_mountain — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:00:18 GMT

So why not just:

1. Ctrl+D (or Ctrl+/ for that matter)

2. >of <filename>

as suggested in a previous tip (best tip ever, BTW)?

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

MarcT — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:38:20 GMT

Great tip! If you like this functionality, check out Sonic File Finder http://jens-schaller.de/sonictools/sonicfilefinder/. It's an AddIn that lets you open files by name, but can search within the filename, as well as at the start. And it's free!

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

saraford — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:46:27 GMT

@small mountain:

the difference is that Ctrl+/ will automatically insert the '>' for you in the quick find box. Ctrl+D will only take you to the quick find box. So using Ctrl+/ saves you an extra keystroke. =)

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

MarcT — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:09:09 GMT

@StevenLJackson1

Are you looking for Edit.OpenFile, mapped to Ctrl-Shift-G? That's what opens a #included file in VC for me. I don't think any of my C# files have a filename in them so I can't test it there.

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

small_mountain — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:57:25 GMT

Ahh, I see the ">" now -- well worth it.

Thanks,

Eric

re: Did you know... How to open a file in the solution without using either a tool window or a dialog? - #164

Darshit Dave — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:25:04 GMT

Hi Sara,

I created alias 'fo' for File.OpenFile and used it.

But, while using 'fo' (alias), the avalialble file list is not shown at the typing file name to open after >fo AddUs.....

Is this the so for all or the case only for me?

Thanks

Darshit Dave