Is it possible to change the color of a tab in Visual Studio 2013/2015 so it is a different color if it's not part of your active solution? If so, how? I looked through the color settings and didn't see anything that jumped out at me, so I'm guessing it's not an option but I figured I'd cast a net to the community and see if anybody's actually done it or knows about it.
You can install Productivity Power Tools 2013\2015 and use Tab Behavior & Tab UI features to control the color's of a tab.
The Tab Behavior feature allows to sort tabs by project
Tabs will be sorted by the project they belong to, thus keeping them always together in the document tab well.
In addition, the Tab UI feature, colors tabs according to their project or according to regular expressions.
This option permits tabs to be colored according to the project they belong to. This is particularly useful when sorting tabs by project, as it allows you to immediately identify different groups of project documents.
You can also configure regular expressions and assign a color to each one. If the name of a tab matches the configured regular expression, it will be colored with the assigned color.
Download link:
Productivity Power Tools 2013
Productivity Power Tools 2015
I hope it supports your questions.
This is what you are looking for: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/dbcb8670-889e-4a54-a226-a48a15e4cace
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Document tabs in Visual Studio are sized to the name of the file as it appears on the tab. This means that the size of each tab that is open is contingent on the size of the text of the file name.
Is there a setting buried somewhere that will allow me to keep all tabs the exact same width?
Why does this matter?
For those that must know a reason for this request, I often work in sizable projects which someone else originally created. While researching functionality of code, I'll often open up over 10 documents, tracing paths or researching behavior. When I'm finished with my research, I'll often have to close the previous 3-7 tabs to get back to my original document and unclutter my work area.
I know this seems like a minor nuisance but since every file name is different, you can't keep your mouse in one location and click the the left-button 3-7 times in rapid succession to close all pertinent documents. You have to float the mouse back and forth, for every tab, because of the variance in tab size.
I'd prefer to just set it so that all tabs are the same size, regardless of the length of the file name. Can this be done with reasonable effort?
I am using Visual Studio 2015, so I would like an answer for that version of VS. However, once I upgrade to VS 2017, I'd like to make the same change to that environment.
If the answer for either version is different, I would prefer an answer for both instances of VS.
You can try Productivity Power Tools.
The feature "Vertical tabs" is what you need.
Document tabs are shown vertically, allowing you to fit more tabs than are normally visible when shown horizontally.
For VS 2015 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.ProductivityPowerTools2015
For VS 2017 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.ProductivityPowerPack2017
Updated:
Productivity Power Tools also support customizing min/max tab width. You can find it from Tools>Options...>Productivity Power Tools>Custom Document Well>Advanced
In VS2022 this is built in under Tools-> Environment -> Tabs and Windows
One of the default features of the new Visual Studio 2013 is automatically highlighting all the occurances of the currently focused word (see screenshot below).
While some developers may consider this as something beneficial and productive, I don't like it personally and it even diverts my attention and interrupts.
I saw an answer on SO about how to disable this feature for C# (under Tools -> Text Editor), but couldn't find this settings for JavaScript...
Would be very grateful if someone can tell me how to disable this feature also for JavaScript.
Tools --> Options --> Environment --> Fonts and Colors --> Match color
Then select foreground and background colors matching regular text.
After going through a lot of options, plug-ins and articles, I have found that the answer was not only so simple, but also was right under my nose...
Just going through the fonts & colors definitions of the text editor in VS, I came across the right definition for this behavior (something with "reference", if I remember correctly).
Now, if you don't mind, I will take my walk of shame. :)
When customizing my Visual Studio color scheme I am often confounded by the "Fonts and Colors" area.
Often, I want to change a specific color, say: the color used for TODO lines, but I need to read through 100s of color names just to figure out what that is. Often I am unable to figure what what color is what.
Is there any documentation out there that lists which colors are which?
Or even better, is there a plugin that allow me to highlight text in the editor and change the scheme of the selected text (figure out what color/s it is)?
I totally agree that this list is messy.
I personally find the Studio Styles page helpful to create Visual Studio color schemes.
If you click on Create a scheme and hover over the different code elements it will show you a tooltip with the naming of that item to find it in Visual Studio (like Keyword, User Types(Delegates), Brace Matching(Rectangle) etc.):
Of course you could also just build the complete theme then on their page and export it. It also provides an import functionality to change your pre-existing Visual Studio scheme directly there.
Anyhow, I would also love to have an extension to do so directly in Visual Studio ;)
Nice question.
I think the answer is no.
Point it out at the place where they monitor.
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There are so many little options and settings within Microsoft Visual Studio. Which adjustments do you recommend to others?
Line Numbers
Tools > Options
Text Editor > All Languages > General
Display: Line Numbers
Environment->General->Animate environment tools => OFF.
Speeds UI responsiveness by 82%.
I've never found dynamic help to be either dynamic or helpful, and just tends to slow visual studio down, so using regedit:
registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Studio\x.x\Dynamic Help
value:
Never Show DH on F1 = yes
I'm also keen on setting the following in Options->Projects and Solutions:
Show Output window when build starts - checked
(IMHO easiest way to spot build errors)
Track Active Item in Solution Explorer - unchecked
(stops every project ending up fully expanded in Solution Explorer)
Gotta have the tab indention set up right.
Also, Consolas & Color Themed - white backgrounds hurt my eyes
Option Strict On
Tools > Options
Projects and Solutions > VB Defaults
Default project settings: Option Strict: On
Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard
Setup a shortcut to close the active document. Ctrl+Alt+W in my case.
Personally i hate that VS defaults to "Tab to Spaces" when you are developing in C#. This is so awkward to work with and unnecessary.
Yes, i know there are issues with Tabs but honestly, did any of you ever encounter them coding in C# on Windows?
Several have mentioned custom keybindings. Here are handy default keybinding reference posters…
Microsoft Visual Basic Default Keybindings reference poster
A high quality, print-ready PDF
containing the useful keybindings for
developers that choose the Visual
Basic developer profile in Visual
Studio 2008 or use Visual Basic
Express.
Microsoft Visual C# Default Keybindings reference poster
Visual C# in Visual Studio 2008 and
Visual C# 2008 Express Edition Wall
chart showing useful keyboard
shortcuts for Visual C# programming
language.
I like Microsoft's instructions:
Download and extract PDF
Send to favorite full color printer/copier
Hang on wall
Code
Smile
Set the active document you're working on to display in the solution explorer. I've seen a lot of people hunting for their current doc if the project gets too big.
Tools -> Options.
Make sure show all settings is checked.
Click on Projects and Solutions.
Enable the Track Active Item in Explorer checkbox.
alt text http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/4821/trackactivedocumentqv2.gif
Environment => General => Recent files
24 items shown in Window menu
24 items shown in recently used lists
Environment => General
Show status bar ON
Animate environment tools OFF
Prevent Visual Studio from renaming pasted controls
How do I prevent Visual Studio from renaming my controls?
Window Layouts
This really isn't a setting but something I always do is back up my settings via Tools > Import and Export Settings.
I make sure to back up my window layouts for both single and multiple monitors. It saves frustration when moving from my multi-monitor setup to a single monitor for a presentation.
Not to mention, it makes it easy to get up and running on a new PC.
Visible white space. (Edit -> Advanced -> View White Space)
The default color is too strong. I immediately change it to silver. (Tools -> Options -> Fonts and Colors -> Visible White Space).
On some displays, even silver is too strong, and I create a "light silver".
I'm somewhat surprised to be the first person recommending Visual Studio Hacks for a lot of suggestions of this variety
Fixedsys Font
Tools > Options
Environment > Fonts and Colors
Font: Fixedsys
Always show solution
Tools > Options
Projects and Solutions
Always show solution
Check out this thread for the Color theme options for Visual Studio
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/141371/which-visual-studio-color-theme
And consolas is my favourite font
This applies to winform projects.
Instead of opening the form in design mode by default, you can configure VS to open the code editor instead. This is configured by right-clicking on a form in the solution explorer and choosing the "Open with" option. This gives you a dialog that allows you to specify the default option when double-clicking on a file.
In a control's properties, setting GenerateMembers to false for items you don't need (labels, etc). It's not a specifically Visual-Studio thing, more related to the platform, but mixed with the contextual list of objects and functions, it just clears up so much clutter.
When designing a form:
View > Tab Order
Allows you you specify and control your TabIndexes easily (much more so than setting them by hand!)
Source View
Tools > Options
HTML Designer > General
Start pages in: Source View
Its all about Resharper ;) Gives you tons of shortcuts which are so useful I can no longer work without them. I don't get on with the intellisense though, so I've turned that off.
This is incredibly useful, allows you to write underscores with the space bar when writing long test method names.
Un-Bold Brace Matching
Tools > Options
Environment > Fonts and Colors
Display items: Brace Matching (Hilight)
uncheck Bold
Find and Replace window’s "Search Hidden Text" checkbox.
It's not really a preference but it is indispensable. It sure is frustrating when you don’t notice that it "magically" unchecked itself.
Besides, Line Numbers, the first thing I always do in a newly-installed IDE is set the Edit.GoToDefinition keyboard shortcut.
Tools > Options > Keyboard
I coded a Mancala game in Java for a college class this past spring, and I used the Eclipse IDE to write it. One of the great (and fairly simple) visual aids in Eclipse is if you select a particular token, say a declared variable, then the IDE will automatically highlight all other references to that token on your screen. Notepad++, my preferred Notepad replacement, also does this.
Another neat and similar feature in Eclipse was the vertical "error bar" to the right of your code (not sure what to call it). It display little red boxes for all of the syntax errors in your document, yellow boxes for warnings like "variable declared but not used", and if you select a word, boxes appear in the bar for each occurrence of the word in the document.
A screenshot of these features in action:
After a half hour of searching, I've determined that Visual Studio cannot do this on its own, so my question is: does anyone know of any add-ins for 2005 or 2008 that can provide either one of the aforementioned features?
Being able to highlight the current line your cursor is on would be nice too. I believe the add-in ReSharper can do this, but I'd prefer to use a free add-in rather than purchase one.
There is a RockScroll alternative called MetalScroll which is essentially the same thing with a few tweaks and improvements.
Also there is a small and simple WordLight plug-in that only highlights the identical tokens.
Both are open source and support code folding which is nice.
Imho, the bar next to the scroll bar in Eclipse is a lot more elegant solution than the scroll bar replacement of RockScroll/MetalScroll. Unfortunately I couldn't find any VS plug-ins that do it the Eclipse way, so I just stick with WordLight.
Check following addins
Productivity Power Tools- Displays error in scrollbar and
Highlight selected word
In a different question on SO (link), someone mentioned the VS 2005 / VS 2008 add-in "RockScroll". It seems to provide the "error bar" feature I was inquiring about in my question above.
RockScroll
EDIT: RockScroll also does the identical token highlighting that I was looking for! Great!
Old question but... Visual Studio 2010 has this feature built-in, at last.
The highlight functionality is conveniently implemented in VisualAssist.
In my opinion, they are both must-have.
1) Highlight identifier under editing caret:
Options -> Advanced -> Refactoring -> Automatically highlight references to symbol under cursor
2) Highlight search result - in all windows. Works for RegExps!
Options -> Advanced -> Display -> Highlight find results
About RockScroll: It doesn't highlight the identifiers. It only highlights the same string in the source code! If there are similar identifier declared : ex. _test and test, and test is highlighted it will highlight the string "test" in variable _test too! And it will also highlight the same string in a method called "sometesting()". So it isn't exactly like eclipse and doesn't work for me.
The automatic highlight is implemented in Visual Assist as the refactoring command "Find References". It highlights all occurences of a given variable or method, but that's not automatic (binded to a keyboard shortcut on my computer).
Here is an exmaple:
DevExpress CodeRush does this when you press TAB when the cursor is in an identifier, you can then tab through all the highlighted instances. There's also a DXCore plugin (the foundation upon which CodeRush/Refactor Pro are built) that does current-line highlighting.
In VS 2017, this can be solved by installing the Match Margin plugin.
It appears to be part of the Productivity Power Tools (which might be worth looking at for other features), but surprisingly, installing PPT didn't solve the problem for me, I had to install Match Margin separately.
The "error bar" functionality is provided in JetBrains ReSharper. I'm not sure if it does highlighting of references to the currently selected identifier.
For selected word(s) highlight function only, there is also StickyHighlight.
StickyHighlight supports Visual Studio 2010 & 2012.