I have spent a long time trying to find out how to change the indent guidelines for visual studio, as the bright gray is really too distracting. I managed to change +/- collapse line, but not the indentation colors.
These are what I am talking about:
They are part of the Productivity Power Tools 2017. This is what they have on their docs:
If you prefer not to see the lines, you can easily turn them off in Tools-Options-Text Editor-General-“Show structure guide lines”. You can also alter their color via the Text Editor “Block Structure Adornments” display item in Fonts and Colors.
But it seems to be outdated. The color setting is now called Structure Guidelines
Related
Either this is found in Tools Options Fonts and Colors, or it's something editable with Visual Studio Color Theme Designer 2022 (an extension from Microsoft DevLabs).
As you can see, the word cast is white on pale-blue, which is very hard to read (and impossible at smaller scale). I have not been able to locate the setting that will adjust this.
I found a process: the blue in the picture is #FFC4D5FF. In the Theme editor, sorting by Color, I found about 50 items colored with this color. Among those is it
Cider -> ListItemMouseOver?
SearchControl ->PopupControlMouseOverBackgroundGradientMiddle2?
I have no clue. I changed all of them to #FF2362FF. Apply/save, and go to my editor, and I get:
So one of the 50 items is the thing I needed to change. Who knows what else changed. The labels are all very obscure to me. In the event something of these is trouble, I'll have to delve more deeply into the set of elements.
A previous question - Visual Studio 2010 element names for theming - has partially answered this, but not what I'm asking, so please don't forward me there.
First, I'm looking for the name of the tooltip background used in the theme editor (Color theme editor for visual studio 2019.)
Secondly, is there a more efficient method of finding these element names? I built this theme mostly by replacing known colors and then for unknowns, screen-shotting, paste to GIMP, get the HEX code search the xml file for the color, find the name, then return to the theme editor with the name and change the color.
The background color to the tooltip as you can see in the following image (outlined in red) is white, making the info generally unreadable. In the menu dialog mentioned in the referenced question, only the foreground color can be changed. The theme editor does not seem to have a field strictly for the tooltip background, so it is likely pulling this background from another unrelated field as visual studio tends to do.
To add to the confusion, in the above image is from a .cs file; on a .cshtml file, the tooltip looks like this. Evidently there are multiple tooltips, as there is also no syntax highlighting in the following example.
I realize this isn't strictly a coding question, but I still believe this to be the most appropriate place to ask the question - If I'm wrong, mods, please direct me to the proper place.
There is a color documentation made by microsoft (with screenshots). Maybe it could help you finding what you are looking for.
Smart tags are almost impossible to see when using the dark theme on visual studio 2012. how do i change the color of smart tags.
Going to tools>options>environment>fonts and colors>smart tags does not work
just to be clear, in the image above, i am talking about the small blue box under the 't', not the red squiggly line
It's in Tools/Options/Environment/Fonts and Colors:
Show settings for: Text Editor
Display Items: Compiler Error
You can change the Item Foreground property to get the color of the squiggly to change.
Microsoft confirmed it as a problem and has added this defect to their backlog:
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/796055/extremely-hard-to-see-smart-tag-when-using-dark-theme
I don't have visual studio in front of me, but I believe that is under the text editor options.
As far as I can remember that color is hard-coded to a constant, so you can't change it. Use Ctrl + . to invoke smart tags when there is one on the screen, it is much easier than hunting it down via the mouse.
I'm using guidelines right now, but I do not think there is any way to disable them for certain projects (my project with tests).
In general, how do you reconcile long, descriptive test method names with a line length limit for non-test code (both of which I think are good)? If you feel the same way and have solved this, what solution do you use?
Drop the line length policy.
If you still want to insist on keeping track of the column, try adding the following to the registry if your using Visual Studio
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor] "Guides"="RGB(192,192,192) 110"
RGB of course controls the color of the line, and you may change 110 to whatever number you like.
The end result gives you a guide line in Visual Studio so you always know where the column is, and the IDE ends up looking like this:
alt text http://blogs.msdn.com/photos/shawnfa/images/659277/637x480.aspx
We accomplish it by dropping the line length limit for all our projects that are not developed in a 1980s green screen environment. We instead use the full power of our 21st century high resolution LCD displays, bitmap screen modes and powerful IDEs to make source code that is descriptive and easy to maintain, rather then designed to fit into the screen and memory footprint of a machine whose RAM is measured in KBs.
(And then we beat the guy advocating line length limits and 3 letter variable names with a pointy stick)
Can't agree with the other answers that long lines are not an issue. You wouldn't say it's comfortable to read a minified single-line .js file - even with the horizontal scroll bars!
Visual Studio has an extension for adding visual hints - Editor Guidelines. You can manually create guidelines wherever you like - 80 or 120 characters. It does not enforce line lengths, so you are still free to deviate where you think it's appropriate.
I know the colours are changed in Environment > Fonts and Colors but I haven't found out which Display Item the object is.
Can someone please tell how I can colour the following code:
lblMessage.Text = "You have successfully answered my question!"
I have the string coloured pink, I would like the lblMessage purple and the .Text a light green.
For me the darker the colour the less it will "change". I won't often change object names, I'll more often change properties and am always changing strings - although I have another question about this that I'll post later.
Thanks
Go to Environment > Fonts and Colors > Display Items and change
Identifier
String
I was hoping that their is I can be
more specific with the colours - if
their isn't then that's an acceptable
answer - just disappointing for me.
Yeah, I don't think you can do that. :)
This is possible if you use a 3rd party addin like Visual Assist. It lets you assign different colors to classes, variables, macros and functions (among other features).