highlighting messages in output window

Question

I saw a screencast recently and what really got me interested is that messages in debugger output window were displayed in different colours (different color for warnings, exceptions etc).Unfrotunately I can't find this screencast anymore.

Does anyone know if this is a new feature of VS2010 or is it part of 2008 and just need turning on?

Answer 1

this scott guthrie blog post will show you how to use the output window for debugger and using the marcos it can be coloured

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/08/18/debugging-tips-with-visual-studio-2010.aspx

Answer 2

I think it's only available for Visual Studio 2010, since it uses WPF. Custom formatting for the Debug output window is possible with the VSCommands extension.

Answer 3

It would be pretty easy to do as an extension, if you are interested:

1. Start with the Diff Classifier sample.
2. Change the [ContentType] attribute in DiffClassifierProvider.cs to "output".
3. Delete the ContentTypeDefinition and FileExtensionToContentTypeDefinition exports from DiffClassificationDefinitions.cs.
4. Add/modify the ClassificationTypeDefinition and ClassificationFormatDefinition exports for the formatting you want to apply.