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Introduction

Most of us use Visual Studio IDE in our daily programming and coding.So this article will tell you few tricks and tips by which you can enhance your productivity and efficiency.  

Tips & Tricks

1. Working in Full Screen Mode in Visual Studio
   1. Alt+Shift+Enter is the shortcut to enter to fullscreen mode in Visual Studio
   2. Its sometimes really helpful and more appealing for developers to work in full screen mode
2. Editing
   1. For Copying a line in the IDE just go to the start of the line and press Ctrl+C,there is no need to select anything
   2. For Pasting a line just go to the start of the line and just press Ctrl+V
   3. For Deleting  a line just go to the start of the line and press Ctrl+X,  this is not actually delete but its similar to cut if you do Ctrl+X on current line and go to some other place in your code and do Ctrl+V then it will paste the same line there.  

1. Expanding and Collapsing the code units
   1. This nice little shortcuts has saved me a lot of time.Whenever i am working on a large piece of code i always get confused and make some changes in other Method or property because they were looking similar.
   2. But now with this shortcut i collapse one method as soon as it is finished.
   3. The shortcut is Ctrl+M+M.
   4. Just go to the beginning or end of the method or property or any code block and hit the shortcut it will expand or collapse the code block comparing to its present state.
   5. If you want to collapse all your code units or blocks to their definitions then the shortcut to achieve this is Ctrk+M+O or Ctrl+M Ctrl+O.This is also a very handy shortcut which helps a lot in development.
2. Automatic Text Indentation and Formatting
   1. This shortcut helps me to write beautiful and decorative code which is easy to understand by any person.
   2. Shortcut is just press Ctrl+K+D.
   3. This works not only in C# and VB code behind but it works well in aspx pages.
   4. If you want to just format the selected piece  of code then just press Ctrl+K+F
3. Automatically adding Namespaces
   1. Use the Ctrl+. (Remember this is Ctrl+[period] if you get confused) shortcut key to automatically get intellisense for probable namespaces.
   2. Just press enter to include the required namespace.
   3. There are much cooler tricks when using a refactor like Resharper.I will discuss those tricks later this month in one of my posts.
4. Commenting And Uncommenting The Code
   1. This trick saved me a lot of time.
   2. Just select the code to be commented and press Ctrl+K+C,this will comment your code block.
   3. For uncommenting the code just press Ctrl+K+U,this will uncomment the code block.
5. Automatically generating properties
   1. Generating dummy getter and setters or properties is also a pain in big projects.
   2. Although i would recommend you some refactors like Resharper which can do it for you or some code generators like Code Smith and also give a try to inbuilt on in Visual Studio 2008 called T4 or Text Template Transformation Toolkit.
   3. But if you don't have such a mass volume project and just don't want to write your getter and setters then just type this prop + TAB+TAB
   4. Remember you don't have to type all of this but you only type prop and then press TAB two times for VS2008 to automatically generate the property for you now you can change the name and any other thing by navigating and just pressing TABS.
6. Increasing and decreasing the indentation
   1. Select the code block for which you want to increase the indentation and after selecting just press TAB,this will increase the indentation.
   2. To decrease the indentation just select the required code block and then press SHIFT + TAB,this will decrease the indentation of the selected code block.
7. Selecting a single word then line and then other lines within that block and then.......
   1. This is also a cool trick if you are in middle of something and want to do something on either the word you are on or the entire code block, or entire method, or entire class then just go on pressing Ctrl+W,it will start selecting for you starting from the current word.
   2. After selecting the desired code block you can perform any operation on that code block.
8. Build & Debug Shortcuts and tricks
   1. To build  a solution just press Ctrl+Shift+B
   2. To start debugging just press F5
   3. To stop debugging just press Shift+F5
   4. If you are already debugging or your WebDev.WebServer.Exe is running or any other webserver is running you can directly attach to that process escaping the hussle to build again this is a great time saver.Remember always build or rebuild if you have done some major changes but if simply you want to debug and have done no changes in any other class library projects then you can use this trick
   5. Simply Press Alt+D+P then the Attach to process window will open.
   6. Simply choose your web server process to attach and you will see without building your entire solution your solution has been attached to the debugger

1. Find Options
   1. You are already familiar with Ctrl+F option to find something either in current documents or all open documents or entire project  or entire solution,but another find option is Ctrl+Shift+F, this trick is helpful when you want all your results to be listed in a find window rather then to navigate one by one in every file where the searched string exists.
2. Switching Between Design And Source Views
   1. F7 is the key used to switch between design and source (ie c# or vb files) views in IDE
   2. If you want to just toggle the markup's design and source view or want to view both then press Ctrl+PageDown
3. Some other common used shortcut keys which can be helpful
   1. Ctrl+Alt+L for opening Solution Explorer
   2. F4 for opening properties window
   3. Ctrl+Alt+X for showing the toolbox
   4. Ctrl+\+T for displaying the tasklist
   5. Ctrl+\+E for displaying the error list
4. How to navigate between various opened tabs inside Visual Studio
   1. Ctrl+TAB key will let you navigate between various open tabs in Visual Studio IDE
5. Going to Declaration and then again returning to the actual usage
   1. Just press F12 to go to declaration  

Selecting Source Control Plugin

1. If you are working in a team you probably will be using a source control there are many options to choose SVN,Visual SVN,TeamFoundationServer,Source Vault and Source Fortress and many others.
2. But when selecting a client you have to mention it in Source Cotrol Plugin Selection as shown below
3. 
    

I want solution for every project which i create

1. If you want a solution for every project which you create then you have to enable this as shown below
2.  

Happy Programming!!!! 

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One more tip.. ColinM123 17:42 15 Jan '09   CTRL+SHIFT+V Cycles through the clipboard ring. Takes a bit of getting used to but can be very handy! Online Guitar Tools Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink nice article Jas 007 1:15 12 Jan '09   it is very very helpful article. i use this shortcuts in my prgrams. thanx aashish Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Thank You Enigmatic 2:25 30 Dec '08   Thank You for such a great article. Any job takes some to time to be done. So thanks again for very useful article and time you spent to do it This is inevitable! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Very Nice (& question) [modified] Gary Noter 6:45 24 Dec '08   I use several of the tips already, and this is a nice find / techie Christmas gift! How'd you get your background on your code editor to be black? There's one tip you totally forgot (and we all forget [by choice or otherwise ] to use often ): From the File menu choose EXIT ( . . . and go home!!!) Thankx, GaryN ASPX ~ Apple Simply Performs eXcellently !! modified on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 3:14 PM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink nice :) fire_birdie 20:49 16 Dec '08   Very nice list, here are a few things you could add: The shortcut you listed for navigating backwards from Goto Definition (Ctrl+-) is actually a general purpose one, it tracks the location of the cursor for any kind of movement (not just Goto Definition). VS actually maintains a separate stack for Goto Definition which you can go through using Ctrl+Shift+8 (back) and Ctrl+Shift+7 (forward, same as redoing Goto Definition but without destroying the stack). These shortcuts cannot be configured and you probably won't find them listed anywhere in the docs. Ctrl+Tab works well for navigating open files, but some people don't like the dialog. For those crazy people, there is Ctrl+Alt+Down (this opens the list of open files, same as clicking the down arrow to the left of the close button in the tab area). It's worth noting that "prop TAB TAB" is a code snippet. Snippets only require one tab, but the first one gets rid of Intellisense. There are lots of them built in to VS, try #region, ctor, try, tryf, foreach, for, and forr (reverse for loop). You can also create your own (check out the Snippet Designer on CodePlex[^] unless you're feeling brave). You can also wrap code in blocks (like a try or if) by selecting the code and hitting Ctrl+K,S. Oh, use Tab and Shift+Tab to move between the fields and hit Enter when you're happy with the values. You don't have to delete and retype a . to get Intellisense back, Ctrl+Space does that (actually it’s word completion but it’ll invoke Intellisense if there is more than one possible option). I used to delete and retype the bracket or one of the commas in a method call to get the tooltip up. Turns out the shortcut is Ctrl+K,P. Ctrl+K,I will bring up info (origin, type, name) about the current word. I hope these are as useful for you as they are for me Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Re: nice :) Aashish Kumar Gupta 22:52 16 Dec '08   Very useful indeed i will add some of them in my next update. Thanks for the quick tips. Also there are few others which i will update here when i will get time. Although there are many but i want to include here only the commonly used tips which can be of help for everyone. Also i am doing some posts on Resharper which is indeed very useful from a developer perspective. Thanks fire_birdie for your suggestions Happy Programming!!!! Aashish Kumar Gupta http://smallworkarounds.blogspot.com Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink good job Rahul.C#Net 16:36 16 Dec '08   thanks for sharing. one suggestion , which already mentioned by one, that you can change the images. 5 from me. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Great tips zmariow 0:49 16 Dec '08   Thanks for sharing this. Always good for developers to get a hand on keyboard shortcuts. Cheers Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Really helpful tips!!! Dwain Browne 19:03 15 Dec '08   Thanks a lot for the tips... although shifting between Design & Source view has been changed to Shift + F7 in VS2008 Dwain Browne Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Great article vvvlad 10:27 15 Dec '08   Thank you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Delete a line jpsstavares 23:37 14 Dec '08   Thabks for the tips! To delete a line, without having to put the cursor in the beggining, but without copying it, you also can Ctrl+Shift+L. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Delete a line Hipster Dufus 1:47 15 Dec '08   or Shift+Delete Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Automatic formating Robert Taylor 23:35 14 Dec '08   Ctrl+K+D also works with XML Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Great article Brij 23:13 14 Dec '08   This is really helpful for me.Thanks Cheers!! Brij Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Great article ash143gupta 3:27 15 Dec '08   Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Good Tips Abhijit Jana 22:55 14 Dec '08   Thanks !!! 5 from me cheers, Abhijit My Recent Article : Beginner's Guide to ASP.NET Application Folder Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Good Tips ash143gupta 3:28 15 Dec '08   Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Quality of illustrations Dmitri Nesteruk 10:03 14 Dec '08   Your JPG files are too compressed, and those red arrows could be a little, ahh, neater. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Quality of illustrations ash143gupta 3:29 15 Dec '08   Yah i know that next time i will use good quality images. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink very useful tips! yxv-2005 7:37 14 Dec '08   wow, really helpful, also if you still use VS2005 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 3.00/5

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