My question is there code completion for Visual studio like in Netbeans where you cycle the buffer with ctrl+k, when you type something?
There's now a nice extension called Simple Autocomplete which adds one command simpleAutocomplete.next that you can map to a shortcut of your choice.
No, there isn't a similar feature in Visual Studio.
The traditional Visual Studio autocomplete is using intellisense.
When you start typing, intellisense may bring up a drop down with suggestions. In that case you can tab to complete using the current suggestion or use the arrow keys to choose another.
Ctrl-Space (or Alt-Right arrow) will bring up this intellisense menu if it's not up.
I find it does a pretty good job overall.
Some extensions like Resharper or Visual Assist offer their own code completion or other similar features (like Suggestion List for Visual Assist).
I know it's been ages since I asked this question but I found the next best thing to do this. What I would suggest is to use VsVim extension and to use Vim's anyword completion; however, in order for this work, what must be resolved is the keyboard shortcuts that conflict:
Go to "Tools options" in Visual Studio.
Then go to VsVim category(alternatively you can search "VsVim" and
should bring the options) and click keyboard.
As far as I know vim deals with this type of completion with these keys
CTRL+P and CTRL+N so what we do is to let Visual Studio give up
these keybindings and let VsVim deal with it by Selecting from the drop
down of the keys(CTRL+P and CTRL+N) and let it be "Handled by VsVim".
I hope this has helped someone out.
As a vim user, I am used to being able to switch the focus to different windows that are side by side with Ctrl-W [hjkl]. While Visual Studio offers very nice organization using docked windows, I find that using the Ctrl-Tab navigation window disorienting when all I want to do is switch focus to the pane that is to the left or right of the one I'm currently using.
Is there any good way to switch focus in Visual Studio between open windows?
I am using Visual Studio 2012.
As a (Vs)Vim-mer I am also looking for that essential feature.
Yesterday my VS2013 was behaving strange, but today it is working fine again (don't know what happened), i.e.:
When you have enabled VsVim Handling for ctrl+w in
Tools/Options/VsVim/Keyboard
then Visual Studio behaves like gVim.
If it happens that Visual Studio does not behave as expected (like yesterday ;-)) then you may alternatively use the similar shortcut:
ctrl+F6 which is assigned to Window.NextDocumentWindow.
This is quite sufficient to switch between both panes. If you hold the ctrl key down and typing F6 another time then it switches to another window, so release the ctrl key when having switched the pane.
You may add / change to another shortcut for this command via the Environment/Keyboard Option.
I keep getting a very annoying problem in Visual Studio. When I try to delete some text by pressing backspace it doesn't work. Why is this? What is going on? Sometimes I have to close and open Visual Studio to make this problem go away but I just tried that right now and it didn't work. Backspace works in Notepad in case you are wondering.
In Visual Studio go to:
Tools
Options
Environment
Keyboard
Find "Edit.DeleteBackwards" command.
In "Use new shortcut in:" dropdown select "Text Editor".
In "Press shortcut keys:" click backspace so it would show "Bkspce"
Click "OK".
Backspace should start working for you again.
This seems to happen to me when I open a solution and there are files already open. I used to close the files, then close and re-open the solution to fix it, but now I just hit Alt + Enter.
Here is the blog where I found this trick.
I solved this issue resetting keyboard mapping scheme.
Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard -> Reset.
A quick fix for me is to simply open any menu from the menu bar. Once the menu is closed the non-character keys start to work again.
Except for the above methods.
You should also check the shortcut key settings:
File -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> 'Then check the item: deleteLeft'.
I get this from time to time in VS2010 as well and simply just using the mouse to change tabs/files seems to always fix it now. Nothing more.
This method is working at 100%.
Go to "File-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts" and search for deleteLeft and add keybinding "Backspace".
Odd that this is still an issue even in VS 2019. Both the backspace and delete keys didn't work. Quick fix, I just ran the project and it seemed to give it the kick it needed.
All I did was exit visual studio and restart it.None of the above options worked for me.
In my case the problem was the "When" Condition in "File-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts".
I removed "textInputFocus && !editorReadonly" and it works now as expected.
I'm looking forward to the side effects ;).
Try resetting your Visual Studio Settings
Go to :
All Program > Visual Studio 20xx > Visual Studio Tools
Run Developer Command Prompt for VS20xx as Administrator and this command:
devenv.exe /resetsettings
A quick work-around for me is locking the pc (Windows+L) and logging in again.
You can reset keyboard mapping scheme like this
Options => Environment => Keyboard then select (Default) in the comboBox and click Reset button and then Ok button to confirm
Visual studio 2019 : Keyboard mapping sheme
Tested in Visual Studio 2019
This problem happened for me when I used a different version of resharper at home and then took that project to my employment. Backspace works for me now after I deleted the bin and obj and resharper directories.
I have this problem after I install Vim, uninstall Vim Backspace works fine.
When this issue has happened to me, I've found that hitting delete or backspace is unresponsive only within a portion of my code. This portion happened to be some code that I've pasted in from the internet somewhere.
To fix this issue, I cut out the recently pasted problematic code and then pasted it into a text editor like Notepad++. Then copying and pasting that same code out of the text editor and back into Visual Studio fixed the problem.
Using Visual Studio Community 2019 (16.4.3)
I just searched this issue because I could click in my document, type, et cetera, but I could not use backspace, delete, ctrl+z, or the arrow keys.
Opening the "File" menu, I noticed the Save option referred to a different file. I checked that file and found that all of the keys that seemed not to work were actually editing that other file.
Switching between the file in half-focus and the file I intended to edit worked and, luckily, undo was able to fix the file I unknowingly butchered.
If you wound up here, check your "File" menu to make sure the correct file is referenced, since the fix is quick and easy to try.
Just had this exact issue (along with 'Enter', 'Ctrl+X', 'Ctrl+C', 'Ctrl+V', 'Ctrl+Z' keyboard mappings seemingly doing nothing) in the latest VS preview version below:
Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 (64-bit) - Preview
Version 17.2.0 Preview 6.0
The fix for me was to move to another tab (I had multiple open) use the backspace key which worked fine, then move back to the original tab with which it wasn't working, save the file (as it had outstanding changes) and then I found backspace and all other shortcuts then worked!
I can only think that VS got in a locked (to keyboard mappings) state for that particular tab.
A few notes on this:
I knew it wasn't a keyboard issue as I was able to use those
keys/mappings fine in other apps.
I found closing and reopening VS didn't work.
Also resetting the keyboard mappings (through Options menu as others have described) didn't work.
I had multiple tabs open.
Resharper was disabled.
I just had this happen in one instance of Visual Studio 2022, caused by the debug settings editor window being open in another instance of Visual Studio 2022 in the background where I couldn't see it.
Closing that window resolved it.
I've had this issue for a long time. I'm not sure what causes it, but Alt + Enter works.
The extensions that I'm running include AnkhSVN, MySQL Tools, and Productivity Power Tools.
This is a really odd one that has been annoying me for some time, I use CodeRush and Refactor Pro at home and at work, since the switch to Visual Studio 2010 I have been unable to use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+') for the Refactor/CodeRush context menu:
For a long time I blamed VS2010 or CodeRush/Refactor! Pro for the issue and just worked round it with the mouse. At some point in time I realised that if Notepad++ was open the shortcut key didn't work.
Depending on what type of file is loaded in Notepad++ alters the effect; for example, if I have an XML/HTML/XAML file open a tag and all of it's children are removed.
I have just tried Notepad++ v5.8.6 with some source files opened and IDETools 10.2.4 in Visual Studio 2010, Windows 7 and everything seems to work fine - the CTRL+' shortcut works as expected. Probably you might want to change the shortcut to something similar like CTRL+1 in the DevExpress\Options\IDE\Shortcuts options page.
In the Delphi IDE, you can hold control and click on a method to jump to its definition. In VS2008, you have to right-click and select "Go To Definition".
I use this function quite often, so I'd really like to get VS to behave like Delphi in this regard - its so much quicker to ctrl+click.
I don't think there's a way to get this working in base VS2008 - am I wrong? Or maybe there's a plugin I could use?
Edit: Click then F12 does work - but isn't really a good solution for me.. It's still way slower than ctrl+click.
I might try AutoHotkey, since I'm already running it for something else.
Edit: AutoHotkey worked for me. Here's my script:
SetTitleMatchMode RegEx
#IfWinActive, .* - Microsoft Visual Studio
^LButton::Send {click}{f12}
Not for Visual Studio 2008, but if you upgrade to Visual Studio 2010, you can use the free
Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools from Microsoft to achieve this.
You could create an Autohotkey script that does that. When you ctrl-click a word, send a doubleclick then a F12.
I don't have AHK handy so I can't try and sketch some code but it should be pretty easy; the AHK recorder should have enough features to let you create it in a point 'n' click fashion and IIRC it is smart enough to let you limit this behaviour to windows of a certain class only.
When you have your script ready just run the script in the background while you code. It takes just an icon in the Notify bar.
Visual Studio 2008 defaults this to F12, but you can set it in Tools | Options | Environment | Keyboard, and change Edit.GoToDefinition - however, I'm not sure how you can get it to CTRL+mouseclick.
Resharper does that but it's not free.
Highly recommended plugin though, most experienced .NET developers use it.
Just a quick note that the following AutoHotkey script works for me in Visual C++ 2010 Express.
SetTitleMatchMode 2
#IfWinActive, Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express
^LButton::Send {click}{f12}
I also changed the shortcuts for View.NavigateForward and View.NavigateBackward to Alt+Right/Left Arrow since I am used to Eclipse.
Yes, both Resharper (a must have!) and Productivity Power Tools have this feature.
Interesting quirk, though.
If you just go with the defaults on both tools (if you install both tools) you can experience a frequent double-jump problem (jump to definition from where you first click and then jump again from what your cursor is above upon getting to that first definition) until you turn off one of the Ctrl-Click features of these add-ons.
Put the mouse cursor on the method name or any identifier, and press F12