< Day Day Up > Visual Studio Hacks By James Avery ............................................... Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00847-3 Pages: 500 Table of Contents | Index | Examples | Errata This hands-on guide is designed for developers who want to go far beyond the obvious features of Visual Studio--the most powerful, feature-rich Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on the market today. It takes the reader on a detailed tour through code editor hacks, all manners of customization, even external tools such as PowerToys. Full of valuable tips, tools, and tricks. < Day Day Up > < Day Day Up > Visual Studio Hacks By James Avery ............................................... Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00847-3 Pages: 500 Table of Contents | Index | Examples | Errata Copyright credits Credits About the Author Contributors Acknowledgments Preface Preface Why Visual Studio Hacks? How to Use This Book An Important Note About Keyboard Shortcuts How This Book Is Organized Conventions Using Code Examples Safari Enabled How to Contact Us Got a Hack? Chapter 1. Master Projects and Solutions Section 1.1. Hacks 1-5 Hack 1. Manage Projects and Solutions Hack 2. Master Assembly and Project References Hack 3. Organize Projects and Solutions Hack 4. Hack the Project and Solution Files Hack 5. Remove SourceSafe Bindings Chapter 2. Master the Editor Section 2.1. Hacks 6-15 Hack 6. Master the Clipboard Hack 7. Make Pasting into Visual Studio Easier Hack 8. Master IntelliSense Hack 9. Master Regions Hack 10. Add Guidelines to the Text Editor Hack 11. Select the Best Editor Hack 12. Customize Syntax Coloring Hack 13. Edit the Most Recent File and Project Lists Hack 14. Refactor Your Code Hack 15. Use and Share Code Snippets Chapter 3. Navigating Visual Studio Section 3.1. Hacks 16-23 Hack 16. Take Control of Your Workspace Hack 17. Find Files Quickly Hack 18. Search Files Quickly Hack 19. Search for Patterns in Your Files Hack 20. Navigate Your Source Code Hack 21. Never Forget a TODO Again Hack 22. Hack the Mouse Hack 23. Enhance the Tabs in Visual Studio Chapter 4. Customizing Visual Studio Section 4.1. Hacks 24-35 Hack 24. Create Your Own Shortcuts Hack 25. Customize Menus and Toolbars Hack 26. Create Custom Window Layouts Hack 27. Customize the Toolbox Hack 28. Package Your Toolbox Settings Hack 29. Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions Hack 30. Hack the Registry Hack 31. Save and Move Your IDE Settings Hack 32. Enable IntelliSense for HTML and XML Documents Hack 33. Add an External Tool Hack 34. Customize Your Project Build Process Hack 35. Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results Chapter 5. Debugging Section 5.1. Hacks 36-43 Hack 36. Set Breakpoints Hack 37. Troubleshoot Breakpoints Hack 38. Customize Visual Studio's Reaction to Exceptions Hack 39. Debug Scripting Code Hack 40. Debug SQL Server Hack 41. Debug a Running Process Hack 42. Debug a Failing Application Hack 43. Write a Custom Visualizer Chapter 6. Speed Hacks Section 6.1. Hacks 44-58 Hack 44. Speed Up Visual Studio Hack 45. Load Files from the Command Prompt Hack 46. Master the Command Window Hack 47. Build a Custom Tool Hack 48. Extend the Application Configuration File Hack 49. Generate Strongly Typed DataSets Hack 50. Define Templates for Generating Code Hack 51. Create a Macro Hack 52. Generate Code with Macros Hack 53. Create Connection Strings Quickly Hack 54. Quickly Sign Assemblies Hack 55. Update Project References Quickly Hack 56. Automatically Add using and Imports Statements Hack 57. Insert Commonly Used Code Automatically Hack 58. Move Quickly Between Source Control Providers Chapter 7. Help and Research Section 7.1. Hacks 59-67 Hack 59. Get Help Hack 60. Search the Internet from Visual Studio Hack 61. Redirect Help to Google Hack 62. Use P/Invoke with Ease Hack 63. Examine the IL Generated by Your Code Hack 64. Examine the Innards of Assemblies Hack 65. Follow the Rules with FxCop Hack 66. Generate Statistics on Your C# Code Hack 67. Profile Heap Allocations Chapter 8. Comments and Documentation Section 8.1. Hacks 68-72 Hack 68. Master C# XML Comments Hack 69. Create Comments Faster Hack 70. Create XML Comments with VB.NET Hack 71. Create Documentation from XML Comments Hack 72. Integrate Your Own Documentation into Visual Studio Chapter 9. Server Explorer Hacks Section 9.1. Hacks 73-76 Hack 73. Access Performance Counters Hack 74. Diagram and Modify a Database Hack 75. Script Your Database Hack 76. Enumerate Processes, Drives, Shares, and More Chapter 10. Work with Visual Studio Tools Section 10.1. Hacks 77-82 Hack 77. Master the Visual Studio Command Prompt Hack 78. Launch Visual Studio from the Command Prompt Hack 79. Stress Test Web Applications Hack 80. Obfuscate Your Code Hack 81. Generate Code from UML Hack 82. Generate UML Design Documents from Code Chapter 11. Visual Studio Tools for Office Section 11.1. Hacks 83-85 Hack 83. Install Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 Hack 84. Create a Command Bar in Word 2003 Hack 85. Display a Windows Form from Excel 2003 Chapter 12. Extending Visual Studio Section 12.1. Hacks 86-91 Hack 86. Automate Visual Studio Hack 87. Access Visual Studio from Standalone Applications Hack 88. Create a File Template Hack 89. Writing a Visual Studio Add-in Hack 90. Find the Name of That Command Bar Hack 91. Change the Icon for Your Add-in Chapter 13. Enhancing Visual Studio Section 13.1. Hacks 92-100 Hack 92. Manage Add-ins Hack 93. Run Unit Tests Inside Visual Studio Hack 94. Spellcheck Your Code and Comments Hack 95. View an Outline of Your Controls Hack 96. Blog Code from Visual Studio Hack 97. Collapse and Expand Your Code Hack 98. Combine the Visual Studio Command Prompt and the Command Window Hack 99. Generate Web Services Code Hack 100. Test Regular Expressions in Visual Studio Colophon Index < Day Day Up > < Day Day Up > Copyright © 2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. The Hacks series designations, Visual Studio Hacks, the image of a voltmeter, and related trade dress are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Small print: The technologies discussed in this publication, the limitations on these technologies that technology and content owners seek to impose, and the laws actually limiting the use of these technologies are constantly changing. Thus, some of the hacks described in this publication may not work, may cause unintended harm to systems on which they are used, or may not be consistent with applicable user agreements. Your use of these hacks is at your own risk, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. disclaims responsibility for any damage or expense resulting from their use. In any event, you should take care that your use of these hacks does not violate any applicable laws, including copyright laws. < Day Day Up > < Day Day Up > Credits About the Author Contributors Acknowledgments < Day Day Up > < Day Day Up > About the Author James Avery is an accomplished author and .NET architect. In addition to this book, James has written books for Microsoft Press and Wrox as well as publishing articles with MSDN Magazine and ASPToday. After working for a number of large corporations and consulting companies, James recently left his job to go out on his own and formed his own company, Infozerk, Inc. (http://www.infozerk.com). James also founded and is the current president of the Cincinnati .NET User Group. James lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wonderful wife Tammy and their three cats. When he is not working on the laptop, you can find him fiddling with his digital cameras, reading, or playing Xbox. James is a frequent blogger, and you can find his blog at http://www.dotavery.com/blog. James can also be contacted by email at [email protected]. < Day Day Up > < Day Day Up > Contributors I was very lucky that so many of the great people I asked to contribute to this book decided to do so. The list of contributors for this book runs the gamut from professional authors to individual, add-in developers. They did an incredible job, and this book would not be the same without them. Jamie Cansdale ([email protected]) is a London-based consultant programmer. In previous lives, he wrote computer games for Ocean and was a Java consultant for Sun Microsystems. More recently, he has been specializing in test-driven development and continuous integration on the .NET platform. He is the author of the TestDriven.NET add-in for Visual Studio and maintains a web log at http://www.testdriven.net/weblog. Jayme Davis is an enterprise application developer in Nashville, Tennessee.