Microsoft is using Twitter to share tips on being more productive with the Visual Studio IDE at the #vstip hashtag. The company promises useful tips for all Visual Studio users, be they new or veteran users. Users are encouraged to share their own tips using the hashtag as well.
Visual Studio tips
Here is a sample of some of the Visual Studio tips provided thus far:
- To improve the performance of solution load and reduce visual noise, disable the restoration of node expansions in Solution Explorer and the reopening of documents on solution load.
- For quick keyboard navigation, use Ctrl+T to find anything in a solution.
- For a debugging shortcut, use F10 to build, run, and attach the debugger. The debugger will automatically break the first time code is being executed. There is no need to set breakpoints.
- Also for debugging, use the reattach to process function, via Shift-Alt+P, when attaching to the same process over and over again.
- Use Shift-Alt+W to quickly surround HTML elements with <div> tags. The inserted <div> will be selected so you can easily edit it.
- Use vsconfig to specify which Visual Studio components are needed for any solution. The IDE will prompt you to install any that are missing.
- Use the Visual Studio Spell Checker extension to check the spelling of comments, plain text, and strings.
- Use the Add New File extension to add files to a project.
Where to download Visual Studio
You can download Visual Studio from the product’s download webpage.