My understanding is that there are currently many ways to add new color themes in Visual Studio 2019, but none that really fits my needs:
The extension Color Themes for Visual Studio installs new themes to chose in the native options menu,
The extension Color Theme Editor for Visual Studio 2019 installs a gui to chose and install themes,
The marketplace that contains a category Themes but the selection is scarce compared to the VS Code themes marketplace,
I also stumbled upon Dainty which seems nice but a Group Policy won't let me build themes on my machine, plus I'd rather not use third party software (and install node + yarn) since Visual Studio has a native support.
So, what I am looking for is a way to easily find themes so I don't have to create or build one myself.
More specifically, I'd like to install an equivalent of the theme Winter is Coming Light found in the VS Code marketplace which I cannot use directly in Visual Studio 2019, since they use different theme formats (.vstheme is XML versus JSON for VSCode) and, by extension, any way to browse through a selection of themes as rich as the one we can find on VS Code.
In VS2019 go to Extensions -> Manage Extensions -> Online -> Visual Studio Market Place -> Tools -> Themes ... and you'll have plenty to choose and it includes a link to preview called "More information".
Oh! to use the downloaded theme you should go to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> General and inside it Color Theme.
Related
I love dark themes in my development environments but can't find a way to make the resources editor (particularly strings) of Visual Studio dark too. My VS version is 2015 Professional.
Here's how I see it:
while the rest of the UI looks like this:
There is an extension for the Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise that changes the theme color of every element of the IDE. Just search themes and you get a lot of extensions and 90% of them work, you can even set up some transparent background for your coding environment and even add some music(mostly trance) that changes and helps you concentrate while coding.
If you inspect the resx editor using inspect.exe tool, you can see its a Winforms data grid view. It does not honor WPF styles. According to my understanding VS is built using WPF changes the themes via WPF style feature.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.datagridview(v=vs.110).aspx
I would like to load the Zenburn theme in VS 2013.
I have installed the Visual Studio 2013 Color Theme Editor and it comes pre packaged with some default themes, however none of these include the Zenburn theme (which I have grown accustomed to in np++ & webstorm).
I have been able to find the zenburn theme here and it states that it is for vs 2012 & 2013 but the file format is ".vssettings" and is not recognized by the Color Theme Editor plugin.
Is there a way I can load the .vssettings theme into VS 2013 or even a valid Zenburn theme for the Color Theme Editor?
To install the theme from studiostyl.es just follow the instructions from the faq :
I can't open the .vssettings theme file I downloaded. What do I do
with it?
You need to import the settings into Visual Studio. This might look
like a lot of work, but it's pretty easy after you do it a couple of
times.
In Visual Studio, choose Tools > Import and Export Settings
Choose Import Selected Environment Settings and select whether you want to
back up your existing settings or not
Click Browse... to choose the file you downloaded.
You get a choice which settings you want to import - choose all of them since the file only contains color settings and won't touch your other VS settings.
Click Finish and you'll see the new colors.
Note: if you save the file to My Documents
Visual Studio 2010 > Settings, you'll have quick access to choose the settings file in step 3 above.
Visual Studio Color Theme Editor is an excellent extension for Visual Studio 2010 that can be used to try and apply different themes on the IDE. The theme only changes the chrome or the windowing area of the IDE.
To change the display of code one still has to play around with the settings in the Fonts and Colors dialog or import settings from a .vssettings file. (A variety of styles are available at StudioStyles).
All editors now allow the programmer to try or switch between different styles on the code with a click (like the gorgeous Sublime Text). Is there a Visual Studio extension or external tool that makes it easy to apply and play around with different styles? If not, is there some trick to try or switch between different styles with ease? I find that going through the Import Settings dialog is quite onerous.
Visual Studio 2012 Color Theme Editor extension now allows (from v2.3) to change Font colors using styles (include your own styles). Exactly what do you need.
Version history
2.3 Added support for merging Fonts & Colors customizations with a theme
Update to Visual Studio 2012 and you be able to use either Light or Dark theme. What's is really cool.
Other good suggestion is to check http://studiostyl.es/ - This website provide many variations of color and fonts to use with your Visual Studio (but by now that compatibility is just with vs2005, vs2008 and vs2010)
My website has several nested folders and sometimes long file names, so sometimes only 4 tabs can be opened at a time.
Can vs2010 be made to show only file names and leave out any path information?
Can the max displayed length for tabs be set?
I know the window can be split so top and bottom both have their own tabs.
For example (using the "Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools"):
Showing the files:
...r.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
For example (not using the Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools):
Showing the files:
Adminstration/...quests.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...tUsers.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...ctions.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...eBanks.aspx.cs
Try installing the "Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools" extension from the Extension Manager in VS. It adds a new section to the standard option dialogue that allows you to customise what they call the "Document Tab Well."
It doesn't let you truncate the filename, but you can change the way they draw and scroll, which might be enough to help.
It does allow more tabs at a time, but it severly shortens the amount of file name you see. So while it allows editing more files, you won't know what file you are editing.
For now I'm using the trial version of Tab Studio
In VS2010, go to Tools - Extension Manager. Go to the online gallery and search for this extension:
Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools
This extension, once installed, gives you extensive control over the document well, including setting a max tab width and much more. I love this extension, and have had zero issues customizing tab behavior to suit my preferences. Hope this helps.
Fixed in Visual Studio 2012
This has finally been fixed in Visual Studio 2012:
So i see:
PendingRequests.aspx (rather than ...r.aspx.cs)
ImportUsers.aspx.cs (rather than ...s.aspx.cs)
SearchTransactions.aspx.cs (rather than ...ctions.aspx.cs)
ImportTimeBanks.aspx.cs (rather than eBanks.aspx.cs)
Now if we could just get the entire Visual Studio ecosystem to:
return to the use of Left, Right arrows to navigate overflow tabs
open new tabs on the right
just like Windows has been doing in 1994, and Visual Studio would start to almost become a user-friendly Windows application.
I have been using this excellent extension for VS2010 that solve your problems: Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools.
It is a bundle of several extensions, but the most notable for you is the Document Well 2010 Plus. It allows you to configure the document tabs: to be the constant width, colour-coded by project, pinned, etc...
You can toggle the extensions that you do not want by editing the manifest file in:
~\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\Microsoft\Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools\
#IanBoyd: I agree, it doesn't solve the problem 100% however it helps (which is why most of the answers to this question suggest it). With the Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools add-on you can a) set the maximum tab width using one tab options, b) setup some colour categorizing rules to help differentiate between projects/file types.
In VS2010, my workflow relies upon several add-ons and keyboard shortcuts to manage my workspace; for example I use CTRL + Tab to switch between active documents, use the pin-tab feature and colour coding from Power Pro Tools, the open solution file dialog from Visual Assist X, and re-open last edited file from Resharper.
This has been answered already here:
Remove path from tab name in Visual Studio 2010
Install the productivity power tools extension and it should do it by default!
Cheers.
There's a lot of new things going on in the Productivity Power Tools extensions, and I find that many of the new features come with very weird color combinations, that many times make the text completely illegible. I assume this is because I've previously set a dark theme for Visual Studio, and some, but not all, of the settings that affect the extension have been changed.
Are there any good dark themes out there that have been put together after the Productivity Tools Extension was published, that create a unified color theme for both VS and the extension features?
Clarification: This question is not about color schemes for code, such as those found at studiostyles. I'm talking about color schemes that apply to the development environment itself; toolboxes, menus, tooltips, windows, buttons...
Install the Visual Studio Color Theme Editor extension:
Make your own color scheme or try: The Dark Expression Blend Color Theme (preview below)
Once you have that, you'll want schemes for the text editor as well. This site has several, including the VS2012 "dark" theme implemented for VS2010.
There is a style that I've created based on dark style from VS 2015 to use on my VS 2010. You can download this style from Dark Style from VS 2015.
After download it, just import through menu Tools -> Import and Export Settings...
So, I tested above themes and found out none of them are showing proper color combination when using Productivity Power Tools in Visual Studio.
Ultimately, being a fan of dark themes, I created one myself which is fully supported from VS2005 to VS2013.
Here's the screenshot
Download this dark theme from here: Obsidian Meets Visual Studio
To use this theme go to Tools -> Import and Export Setting... -> import selected environment settings -> (optional to save current settings) -> Browse select and then Finish.
Not sure if any of these help, but this might get you started: http://studiostyles.info
I know that the site owner has been gradually adding functionality to allow support for new color assignments, so perhaps there's something there.
You can also try this handy online tool, which generates .vssettings file for you.
Visual Studio Color Theme Generator