Problem: I want to edit VBScript files from inside Visual Studio 2017, but the files have the extension '.mts' instead of '.vbs'
Theory: See helpful article here.
Steps Tried: I performed a few Registry hacks in order to get 'Script Editor' to show up as a choice in the 'Open With' menu. However, even now that 'Script Editor' is the default for MTS files, I don't get syntax highlighting when opening them. The linked article suggest that 'Script Editor' is 'rejecting' the document, causing Visual Studio to default to the base text editor, but I don't see a reason why this should be happening.
A couple of options:
Set Visual Studio Options: Tools => Options => Text Editor => File Extension. Add mts extension and set editor to Microsoft Visual Basic - that should do I think.
VbsEdit: Another alternative could be to use a VBScript tool such as VbsEdit. I tested it and it seems to apply syntax coloring even for files that do not end in *.vbs. This is a commercial tool, but is great for VBScripts. It features its own debugger and also an extensive samples library in the Samples menu (not affiliated).
Related
My project stores html code fragments for use in templating in files with a custom extension (*.phtml). I find that Visual Studio is inconsistent in its use of editors when I edit these files. Sometimes it provides no intellisense, sometimes it treats the files as XML (which is better than nothing), and sometimes I get lucky and it provides me with the HTML editor.
I've configured Visual Studio to treat *.phtml files as HTML, but that doesn't seem to make any difference.
What more can I do to convince Visual Studio to always use the HTML Editor for *.phtml files?
Right-clicking a file in solution explorer shows an "Open with ..." option, the window that it opens has a choice of editors plus a "Set as default" option.
I've had an install of 2012 for a while, but I've had to also just install VS 2010. As expected, all my file associations now point to VS2010 and the icons aren't so intuitive. Without doing each file manually through the explorer menu, how can I quickly revert/change the associations back to VS2012?
Open VisualStudio - Tools > Options.
Then go to General Page of Environment and click the Manage File Associations button.
A Window in the controlpanel will be opened(Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Default Programs\Set Program Associations)
.Select Extensions you want to associate to VisualStudio2012 and click the Save button.
The accepted answer only assignes file extensions to Visual Studio as a whole. To tell VS how to handle a file extension (like syntax highlighting), go to Tools > Options > Text Editor > File Extension and add your extension to the list.
Resharper has some commands I just can't live without (keybindings are given for the Visual Studio template):
Open by filename (Ctrl+Shift+T)
Locate in solution explorer (alt-shift-T, useful only when solution explorer is configured not to track the current file already)
Does visual studio have alternatives to these that don't require Resharper? I know VS2010 adds the "Edit.NavigateTo" command (Ctrl+,) but it is slow and shows every useless symbol that might be what you want (too noisy).
Is anything similar offered by other perhaps free addons?
You might want to try the Solution Navigator feature that is bundled with the free Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools extension. It appears to have more powerful support for searching for files and symbols all combined within the Solution Explorer.
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.
Can Visual Studio 2010 be configured to do syntax highlighting on ".inc" files? We have numerous large projects with tons of these ".inc" files (asp files) and so changing the file extension to ".asp" is not an option. All I want Visual Studio 2010 to do is treat these ".inc" files just like ".asp" files when it comes to syntax highlighting.
I've tried "Open With..." and selected the HTML Editor, which is the ".asp" default, but that did not work. I tried about every other editor in the list and none of them worked.
I know Notepad++ (among others) can do this, but I would prefer this be done in Visual Studio 2010 - using another IDE or text editor is not the answer I'm looking for here.
In Visual Studio...go to Options -> Text Editor -> File Extension. Type in 'inc' as extension and editor as 'Web Form Editor'. You may need to close then re-open your currently open .Inc pages...Hope this helps
I found both the 'Web Form Editor' and 'HTML Editor' to be less than ideal for me. Both of them appeared to highlight the syntax of the HTML ok, but the VBScript keywords were left in standard black text along with everything else.
While not ideal, I followed the instructions from the other answers, but substitude Visual Basic as the editor type and that worked much more to my liking (as they were include files, there is little HTML in them).
Options -> Text Editor -> File
Extension. Type in 'inc' as extension and set editor as 'Visual Basic'.
Close and re-open any '.inc' files and highlighting should be visible.
Antonio's solution worked for me. I did have to close and reopen files, but after I re-opened them the highlighting was visible. Thanks!
Options -> Text Editor -> File Extension.
Type in 'inc' as extension and set editor as 'Web Form Editor'.
Close and re-open any '.inc' files and highlighting should be visible.
Incidentally, this also works in Visual Studio 2005.
Use the File Extension, Text Editor, Options Dialog Box.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4k7w5e5s.aspx
-update-
I see the same behavior :-( Will let you know if I find anything.
As a workaround, could you rename all your .inc files to .asp?
This has the added advantage that if a request is made for the inc file directly (highly unlikely but possible; and assuming you have the incs in the web directory), your code will be exposed unlike .asp where it is processed and rendered.
I really wanted to add a comment, because this is not a direct answer, but apparently you need 50 reputation for that.
I've found that in Visual Studio 2005 (again, in Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> File Extension), both "Web Form Editor" and "User Control Editor" highlight both the HTML and the VBScript.
Amadiere mentioned that "Web Form Editor" doesn't highlight the VBScript in 2010, but maybe it's worth trying "User Control Editor", if that's an option in 2010.
In Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 Express it best works for me when I use "Microsoft Visual Basic" with my .inc files. Nevertheless, it's still not the same as with .asp files as there's no Autocomplete nor IntelliSense (Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Shift+Space etc.) with the .inc files.
It should be made possible defining that .inc files are to be treated just as .asp files.
I agree with Purple Coder:
You should not name the files containing ASP code as .inc. It is a security risk. Anyone who knows/can guess the filename can open it in a browser and view the actual code inside the file.
But, first of all in my case this is an intranet page and therefore not very risky, as most people there would somehow find the files on the server anyway. I'm also not sure where this naming convention came from. It was there before I started. This was started on Visual Studio 6.
But, to avoid this risk there's a simple solution: add .inc in the Application Mapping of the IIS in the same manner as .asp.
You should not name the files containing ASP code as .inc. It is a security risk. Anyone who knows/can guess the filename can open it in a browser and view the actual code inside the file.