Visual Studio (currently I am on VS2019) comes with the option to download the offline documentation and make use of that by default.
First one would have to make sure the Help Viewer is installed (from Visual Studio Installer) and then make that the default:
Then one can pick the help content downloaded for offline use:
It looks like this:
As you can see, except for a handful of topics I have installed most of the help content for offline use.
However, regularly when I use the offline help, I end up with links opening in my browser for no apparent reason. What's worse: more often than not you end up on some generic URL rather than something directly related to your search item.
Concrete example: in the Index or Contents look for IFileOperation. It should look something like this (as indicated by the colors, some of the related links were visited before):
When you click on the (highlighted) "Methods" link the Help Viewer directs to the default browser and opens the URL https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/. This also happens to be the exact URL given if you look at the link properties for "Methods". Rather unhelpful.
Question: is there a way to use the offline help of Visual Studio completely offline even though the machine may be online? I.e. is it possible to prevent https://-URLs from opening altogether?
Related
Using VS 2010 -- and later VS Community 2015 -- I've been trying to make a simple Windows client app that will cycle through a list of URLs and display them in the web browser control. Specifically, it's a list of my favorite online comic strips. However, whether it's in the VS 2010 environment or the VS Community 2015 environment, the web browser control does not display all of the elements on the page. Nor will they show if I run the executable outside the development environment.
For example, at this URL, which is the Zits comic website, most of the page shows, but not the comic strip itself. At another, it shows the strip but everything on the page beneath the strip is blank. Odd, though, is that the elements appear to be there, just not visible. Running the mouse over an anchor element, for example, changes the cursor to a hand, and clicking the invisible link works.
I've looked at the source code for the pages, the code shows the elements to be there. I can't see anything in the source that shows why it wouldn't be showing up.
As I said, it does the same thing for VS 2010 and VS 2015.
Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong?
Figured it out. It's a crappy way of having to do it, but it turns out the web browser defaults to IE7 mode, and as far as I can find, the only way to correct it is to add a registry key to set the emulation to IE11.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330730(v=vs.85).aspx
Seems like the web browser control, especially in VS 2015, would be a little more flexible than that. But it is what it is, and since this is for my own personal use, I don't have to worry about changing any registry keys in another user's machine.
Background
I am working with VB6 legacy code and I am using an external editor because of the features that it has. Unfortunately, those changes aren't refreshed in the IDE because VB6 doesn't monitor loaded code for changes.
I have done some extensive searching on the subject including looking for alternative editors, a fairly exhaustive internet search including following all of the links on this StackExchange link and haven't found a way to refresh the code window to reflect the external file changes.
My company doesn't have access to the latest edition of Visual Studio and will not be purchasing it anytime in the near future. Until then, there is code to fix.
Question
Aside from restarting the program are there any methods that can be used to refresh the code displayed in the VB6 editing window?
Check out vbAdvance add on. It will prompt you to reload source file in case of external modification.
I think a found one possible solution.
The MZ-Tools set has an function called Reload file from Disk. It also allowed me to create a shortcut for this function through the MZ-Tools options menu, so I assigned it to the shortcut keys of my choosing.
It's a solution, but I'm still looking for anything that might be better.
Oftentimes I want to bring up a system class in a source view, so that I can browse the properties and methods exposed by the class. Below is the screenshot of what I mean:
Srting from metadata http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/940/stringfrommetadata.png
Usually I do this by selecting the class name and pressing F12 (or right click>Go To Definition). However, if I haven't got it anywhere ready, i have type it up and then do Go To Definition. Most of the time I have to delete what I typed later on.
Is there a way to bring up this view without having to type the class name? The VS2010 Navigate To dialog doesn't support this.
EDIT: When I posted the question I didn't use any Visual Studio plugins. Now that I realised that I have full CodeRush license (thanks to StackOverflow promotion for users with 10K rep) I will accept answers that use CodeRush or Refactor!.
EDIT: At this stage I haven't really got anywhere with trying to answer this question. I am going to leave it open and let the bounty auto-award itself to Rory as he explained what's happening the best. In the meantime(schedule allowing) I will investigate doing this with DXCore as I think it should be possible.
The view you're looking at appears to have been built by some sort of analysis of the IL of the framework. Without knowing the type you intend to look at, no deconstruction can be done. Therefore I feel that, you are unlikely to find exactly what you have said you are looking for.
Allow me to suggest a few alternatives though.
Disclaimer: I work for DevExpress as a CodeRush Community Evangelist.
The Object Browser (Ctrl+Alt+J) This screen will load without attempting to show you any particular type, it will therefore be down to you to find the type in question. However all types are available and full search functionality is provided. once the type you're looking or is found, all members are listed and available.
Update: If you use the (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+R) shortcut to launch the object browser, then it will launch focused on the Search box. This is invaluable.
There are a number of CodeRush features which can prove useful when trying to locate code.
TabToNextReference (Tab) Whilst the caret is positioned within a type, strike the tab key and the next reference to that type will be located. More Details
References ToolWindow (Shift+F12) When activated the References ToolWindow will show you any references to the current type or member. This toolwindow can also be used to navigate said references. The References Toolwindow can be used in both on demand and Live mode. this allows you to have the window update as you navigate your code (via mouse or keyboard) and locate all references of any symbol the caret lands upon.
QuickNav (Ctrl+Shift+Q): This feature is closest in style to VS2010's NavigateTo feature. QuickNav will locate symbols matching whatever you type into it's filter box. This facility also supports Camel Case search. More details
QuickNav is also much more configurable than it's VS counterpart
Finally
Please also keep in mind that CodeRush is build upon the DXCore, a framework which allows users to create their own plugins for use alongside each other and CodeRush.
This framework has been repeatedly been leveraged by the community to add additional functionality. So even if you don't see any thing quite to your needs, consider suggesting something to the community by way of the forums or even contact me directly RoryB at DevExpress dot Com
I'm sure there's something we can do to help you out :)
I was not aware of that new "Navigate To" feature, but I used to use Reflector for this sort of things. The pro version offers some integration with Visual Studio (Right clicking the method and selecting "Open In .NET Reflector"). It will open the reflector window and won't show the code in the VS itself. You can watch the demo that shows this feature and some others.
This is not the best answer that I'd expect but is a good option to know.
There is no way that I know of to do this in Visual Studio 2010. However, you can do this in ReSharper via the 'navigate to' menu. I suggest you try the 30 day trial from them, then if you really do need this then purchase it.
A number of add-ins allow you to browse objects (though usually in an object-browser treeview manner rather than in a "header" file form - I believe Resharper, CodeRush and Visual Assist X all have variations on this theme).
However, one add-in to consider (as it's free) is the VS Productivity Power Tools. It adds a Solution Navigator window that gives a view onto your solution just like Solution Explorer, but (among other enhancements):
can search & filter the files listed, e.g. show only those files that are named Test.
can "expand" any file entry to show the types and members within it.
Is there any way to associate a web page with a project in Visual Studio, and have it load up in the IDE? For example, I have a project who's task list is maintained on a web site. It would be ideal to see those tasks within the IDE instead of a separate page. I can accomplish that now by following these steps:
Press Ctrl-Alt-R to open a Web Browser page
Change the URL to my desired path
Position the page as desired (like in its own tab group, off to the right of my code)
It would be nice to have a link somewhere in my project that I could click and open this page in the IDE without changing the URL every time. I have several different projects that would benefit from this. Any ideas?
Something like this happens with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. The various documents and guidance associated with your current Team Project area accessible from within Visual Studio, in the Team Explorer window.
You can also create a Guidance Package to apply various commands and pieces of documentation at appropriate places within your projects. see Guidance Automation Extensions and Guidance Automation Toolkit.
Nice idea. The only thing that I can think of is via Visual Studio Extensibility. Basically,
Define an MSBuild property in the project file or a custom field in the solution file that has the project url.
Write a VS package that subscribes to the solution load event or something similar (I am not familiar with VS object model but I am sure there is an event like that) and looks for that custom field and extracts the url if it exists in the solution or the project file and then opens a web browser within VS that points to that url.
Here's my quick hack around this problem:
Create a text file in the project. I called my "notes.txt", and I use it to store notes, ideas, etc. that don't have a home elsewhere in the project.
Add the web link to the top of the file.
Open the text file in the IDE and put it in a new tab group. I put mine in a vertical tab group off to the right.
Drag the separator as far over as it will go to "hide" the tab group. This way it's always open and available but not taking up much space.
When you want the web page, "show" the tab group (i.e. drag the separator back) and ctrl-click the link.
This has the added benefit of opening the web page in the same tab group as the text file, so you can push them both aside when not using them.
I'm sure there's more that could be done by writing packages as others have suggested, but this was a low-effort way to get me close enough to what I wanted. I'd love to hear other suggestions or modifications that might make this setup better.
Is there a way to stop the path showing in a source code tab in Visual Studio 2008?
Currently when developing an ASP.NET site, I get the path from the root plus the filename - truncated when it gets too long. So something like:
MyDir/MyPage.aspx
for a short path and filename, or:
MyDir/MyLong...yPage.aspx
for a longer path and filename.
I'd prefer to see just the filename (ie just MyPage.aspx), allowing more tabs to show at once and making it easier to see which files I have open without using the drop-down list or Crtl-Tab to show the full set.
In VS2005, I just get the filename - no path however long it is. Oddly in VS2003 I get the path and filename. I've scoured the options and I can't find a setting that lets me change what appears in the tabs. Searching suggests that other people have similar issues (although which version it occurs in appears to differ) but no-one could identify an option to change what appears.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get rid of the paths in the tabs (or confirm that it can't be changed to save me wasting more time searching)?
Tabs Studio add-in can remove path from tab in Visual Studio 2008.
See
Removing path from tab name
blog post for the example screenshots.
In my copy of VS 2008 I just get the filename, not the path. I wonder whether it's a "web site" vs "web application" thing. Which one are you working in? Can you create a project of the other type and see if it still happens? (I'm working in a web application where I get filename-only.)
It looks like Microsoft does not allow to do it using the standard method. I'm know ReSharper allows this, but installing a big plugin for this is a bad idea. I think I have sinse found a small plugin which allows show or hide the full path. I am sure this should exist.