There are so many little options and settings within Microsoft Visual Studio. Which adjustments do you recommend to others?
I'd prefer Cntrl + g to go to a specific line. :)
RWendi
2008-10-09 20:57:17
Line numbers are helpful when you're working, locally or remotely, with another developer. "Look at lines 25-30."
Michael Petrotta
2008-10-09 21:26:19
WEll you can just look at the status bar and check the line you are instead of having 1/4 inch took for nothing about 95% of time ;)
Daok
2008-11-03 20:20:27
Like Daok said - this seems like HUGE waste of space and I don't think I can ever remember needing them. CTRL-G also works for me.
Tim
2008-12-29 16:38:31
I cannot imagine working without line numbers
lucian.jp
2009-01-27 18:31:39
Line numbers also indicate how much is hidden inside collapsed regions, something you can't see from a single number on the status bar.
Ed Guiness
2010-03-08 10:38:34
This doesn't seem to be available in the Express version and that makes me sad.
bouvard
2008-10-28 21:13:49
Bouvard, remmember to check the "Show All Settings" button, at the buttom of the dialog
Jesper Blad Jensen aka. Deldy
2009-01-27 18:12:02
+2
A:
Check out this thread for the Color theme options for Visual Studio http://stackoverflow.com/questions/141371/which-visual-studio-color-theme
And consolas is my favourite font
Jobi Joy
2008-10-09 20:43:32
+6
A:
Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard
Setup a shortcut to close the active document. Ctrl+Alt+W in my case.
Mark S. Rasmussen
2008-10-09 20:44:24
control-f4 is a lot harder to hit than something like ctrl-w (which most apps use to close windows, both in Windows and OSX).
Joseph Daigle
2008-11-03 20:44:22
I use Control-W, which is the same as the shortcut to close the current tab in some browsers.
Kyralessa
2009-06-11 03:21:04
+5
A:
Personally i hate that VS defaults to "Tab to Spaces" when you are developing in C#. This is so awkward to work with and unnecessary.
Yes, i know there are issues with Tabs but honestly, did any of you ever encounter them coding in C# on Windows?
steffenj
2008-10-09 20:47:25
You will if you have a team where one developer doesn't like the default tab width.
Joel Coehoorn
2008-10-09 20:49:41
That is just a display issue and can be configured on each computer without affecting anyone else. However, if one developer does have "tabs to spaces" on and all source files he touched are converted to spaces ... well, that just sucks.
steffenj
2008-10-09 21:38:59
I totally agree - to save others time: Tools > Options > Text Editor > All Languages > Tabs > Keep tabs
Cory House
2008-11-17 14:33:28
getting your team to use anything but the default settings is an uphill battle.
Dustin Getz
2009-01-27 17:51:03
and you can use intelligent diffing software if you do run into whitespace commits.
Dustin Getz
2009-01-27 17:51:42
I hate to start a religious war, but only infidels would check in files with \t instead of spaces.
Frank Schwieterman
2009-08-04 22:59:12
"Insert spaces" is evil, If by any reason code gets indented when typing a '}' then all tabs upwards are converted to spaces. That is really a pain in the @ss when diffing the change log, or even worse when doing a Blame (thats the name of the operation in TortoiseSVN, don't know how it's commonly knonwn in other tools) of the source file.
Fede
2010-04-22 13:37:54
catchmeifyoutry
2010-09-02 00:12:02
A:
Besides, Line Numbers, the first thing I always do in a newly-installed IDE is set the Edit.GoToDefinition keyboard shortcut.
Tools > Options > Keyboard
Kon
2008-10-09 20:54:15
+8
A:
Gotta have the tab indention set up right.
Also, Consolas & Color Themed - white backgrounds hurt my eyes
thismat
2008-10-28 21:02:28
I personally find this distracting. A keyboard shortcut that found the active item would be nice though.
Greg
2009-01-27 18:17:09
I found it distracting too. So I use Add-in (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/macros/VSHelper.aspx) to quickly find document when I need it.
Juozas Kontvainis
2009-04-24 07:18:47
+1
A:
Its all about Resharper ;) Gives you tons of shortcuts which are so useful I can no longer work without them. I don't get on with the intellisense though, so I've turned that off.
This is incredibly useful, allows you to write underscores with the space bar when writing long test method names.
Andrew Bullock
2008-11-03 20:18:02
+12
A:
Environment->General->Animate environment tools => OFF.
Speeds UI responsiveness by 82%.
Soraz
2008-11-03 20:32:35
+4
A:
Environment => General => Recent files
24 items shown in Window menu
24 items shown in recently used lists
Environment => General
Show status bar ON
Animate environment tools OFF
Alan
2008-11-03 20:38:42
+1
A:
This applies to winform projects.
Instead of opening the form in design mode by default, you can configure VS to open the code editor instead. This is configured by right-clicking on a form in the solution explorer and choosing the "Open with" option. This gives you a dialog that allows you to specify the default option when double-clicking on a file.
BenR
2008-11-03 21:42:34
A:
Un-Bold Brace Matching
Tools > Options
Environment > Fonts and Colors
Display items: Brace Matching (Hilight)
uncheck Bold
Zack Peterson
2009-01-27 17:54:38
+3
A:
I'm somewhat surprised to be the first person recommending Visual Studio Hacks for a lot of suggestions of this variety
Lawrence Johnston
2009-01-27 18:00:18
+2
A:
Visible white space. (Edit -> Advanced -> View White Space)
The default color is too strong. I immediately change it to silver. (Tools -> Options -> Fonts and Colors -> Visible White Space).
On some displays, even silver is too strong, and I create a "light silver".
Jay Bazuzi
2009-01-27 18:23:38
This would be easier to follow if your screenshots weren't overly compressed. Next time you might want to use png rather than jpeg, it is lossless and for screenshots without embedded photos usually ends up smaller than a resasonable quality jpeg.Make whitespace visible using: Edit>Advanced>View White Spaceor pressing Ctrl+E,Ctrl+STo set the colour, use Tools>Option>Fonts and Colors>Visible White Space.
Mark Booth
2010-03-24 14:45:22
Thanks @Mark. FreeImageHosting.net isn't doing a great job for me, either. I've edited to state the menu items in the text.
Jay Bazuzi
2010-03-27 15:29:39
+3
A:
Window Layouts
This really isn't a setting but something I always do is back up my settings via Tools > Import and Export Settings.
I make sure to back up my window layouts for both single and multiple monitors. It saves frustration when moving from my multi-monitor setup to a single monitor for a presentation.
Not to mention, it makes it easy to get up and running on a new PC.
whatknott
2009-01-27 18:32:53
+1
A:
Find and Replace window’s "Search Hidden Text" checkbox.
It's not really a preference but it is indispensable. It sure is frustrating when you don’t notice that it "magically" unchecked itself.
Scott Dowding
2009-01-27 18:53:37
+2
A:
In a control's properties, setting GenerateMembers to false for items you don't need (labels, etc). It's not a specifically Visual-Studio thing, more related to the platform, but mixed with the contextual list of objects and functions, it just clears up so much clutter.
MPelletier
2010-03-27 15:42:13
A:
When designing a form:
View > Tab Order
Allows you you specify and control your TabIndexes easily (much more so than setting them by hand!)
MPelletier
2010-04-22 13:27:27