In Visual Studio 2012 it's a lot of margins to the left of source code text: Indicator Margin, Selection Margin and Outline Margin. As an old programmer i prefer an uncluttered text, so i want all 3 margins to be hidden from me. In Text editor settings i can hide indicator and selection margins, but i didn't found how to hide an outline margins. Outline graphics (all this "+" things and ines) can be easily hidden from "edit" menu, but margins itself remains. Is it possible to hide it or such feature is not implemented? In previous versions of Visual Studio it auto-hides if "selection margin" was disabled, but now it seems that it don't hide at all :(.
Update
A little clarification why I need it. As correctly mentioned in comments, it's very unusual to have preferences for text formatting and appearance. I agree with that. Unfortunately, in my personal case, I work with text like 10 hours per day for dozens of years and my brain is kind of trained to calculate indentation from text editor left edge. And every time I work in Visual Studio my "wrong indentation" instinct is often triggered by this empty space :). Of course i can re-train myself, but since ALL editors except Visual Studio displays text close to left edge, I will try to configure Visual Studio first.
Turn off the Indicator margin with Tools + Options, Text Editor, General, untick "Indicator margin"
Turn off the Selection margin with Tools + Options, Text Editor, General, untick "Selection margin"
Turn off the Outline bar with Edit + Outlining, Stop Outlining. That is however liable to come back when you open a new file. You can make it consistent for the C# IDE with Tools + Options, Text Editor, C#, Advanced, untick "Enter outlining mode when files open". If you want to do this for other kinds of files as well then you need to write an add-in that listens for the DocumentEventsClass.DocumentOpened event.
I've created an extension for this, it's for VS2015 but if you haven't upgraded yet it should work for VS2012 as well (assuming you're using an edition that supports extensions). The source code is only a few lines and is shown in the screenshot of the posted link.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saraford/archive/2007/09/13/did-you-know-you-can-hide-outlining-selection-margin-without-turning-off-outlining.aspx
Tools – Options – Text Editor – General, and uncheck Selection Margin...
This work?
Go to VisualStudio->Tools->Options
Drill down to Text Editor->C#->Advanced and uncheck "Enter outlining mode when files open"
Other language editors have similar options to disable outlining mode.
Any files you have open before changing this setting need to be re-opened, or you can turn off outlining from the context menu for each open file. Easier to just close/re-open.
Hope that helps!
Here's an extension that worked perfectly for me: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JustinClareburtMSFT.HotSettings
It has custom options to hide/show:
the entire margin
breakpoint margin
line numbers
selection margin
I can't tell if anyone actually answered your question (which is mine today!). Please see http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/109611/Color-Indicator-for-Code-Changes-Track-Changes-in and particularly the "Enable / Disable" section: "Go to Tools > Options > TextEditor. In General section, you can check or uncheck the 'Track Change' option."
Agree this feature is a big visual hassle during initial development, but it can be helpful during "maintenance" changes.
Corrected per "external link" comment.
Related
This is a simple issue, and I hope someone can help
For reasons I don't think I need to explain, my XAML thinks it has some errors in it in the Visual Studio code editor (which shows as wavy blue underlines across most of my XAML).
Does anyone know how to turn this underlining off in Visual Studio 2012 ?
It's incredibly annoying, and makes my XAML hard to read
Thanks
I would suggest setting the editor for .xaml-files manually.
Go into
Tools->Options->Text Editor->File Extension
Write xaml in the Extension field and choose XML (Text) Editor from the Editor drop down and then click Add.
Your XAML files should now open as ordinary XML files, without error underlining.
You will probably loose a lot of the nice to have features of the XAML editor, but as far as I know (I've struggled a bit with this myself) it is the only way.
Found this on MSDN. There is a specific setting to disable this.
Open the Options dialog by selecting Tools > Options, and then select
Text Editor > XAML > Miscellaneous.
Uncheck the Show errors detected
by the XAML designer check box.
Article from MSDN
It is possible to hide the SquiggleShape by making the surrounding adornment layer hidden or collapsed using the Snoop tool.
To achieve this, the Snoop crosshair tool has to be dragged on the editor window with shift and ctrl keys pressed (keep them pressed a while when releasing mouse button). You should end on some Canvas (with the editor window highlighted), and below there is some ViewStack. Inside, there are some AdornmentLayer, one of which contains multiple SquiggleShape. In the properties section on the right side of the Snoop window, scroll to the Visibility row and select the value Hidden or Collapsed. Now, the squiggle lines are not visible any more.
This involves some manual work, but as long as the file stays open, the squiggle lines are hidden. In principle, it should be possible to write an extension which hides the lines automatically. However, at the moment I don't find the time to do this...
The only decent fix for this silly bug that I can find is right click on the xaml and click open with. Select source code editor (without with encoding). Not a great fix when you consider it gets rid of important errors. But it should help you read it better for the most part.
Another Option for this is to change the color of the line under: Tools > Options > Environment > Fonts and Colors. Change it to the same as the background.
It will turn it off in all other editors also though.
I recently installed Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate.
Now, as you know, there is this "n references" above all methods.
When I go to the CodeLens options, I can't disable this single feature, since the checkbox is grayed out.
So how can I disable it?
Only workaround I found was un-checking the "enable codelens" option.
The References indicator is required to be on because it is the only one that knows how to do "placeholder" items (the one that says "- references"), and is guaranteed to show up everywhere that codelens appears.
If you could turn off references, then it is highly possible that codelens would reserve space for indicators, and yet no indicators would ever appear, so you would end up with blank lines on every method/class/property that aren't real blank lines, they're just reserved space for codesense elements that will never appear.
I'd suggest using the "send a frown" thing in visual studio and commenting about this if you want to turn just references off.
If you want to keep the CodeLens functionality but mostly get rid of the references, go to:
Options/Environment/Fonts and Colors
Show settings for: CodeLens
and change the settings to:
Font: Consolas
Font Size: 6
Indicator Text: White
Indicator Text (Disabled): White
Indicator Separator: White
Choosing Consolas reduces the line height beyond the default Calibri font, even at font size 6. There might even be a smaller font that you can use but I haven't found it.
If you have a dark background choose a matching dark color instead of White where it is mentioned in the steps above, since the goal is to hide the CodeLense text.
In Visual Studio 2015.
Tools > Options.
Text Editor > All Languages > CodeLens.
Uncheck “Enable CodeLens”
I am looking for the option to set the background/highlight color for identifier-matches on Visual Studio.
For example, if I have an identifier:
int myNumber=0
Now, I put my cursor on into the middle of myNumber. Visual Studio highlights all other occurrances of myNumber on the page.
I cannot, for the life of me, find the color settings for this highlighting. At the moment in my color scheme it looks very much like the color for selected text. So, it is confusing and affects my productivity.
If anyone can track this down, you will be my hero.
It's a few months late, but the setting you're looking for is Highlighted Reference.
Since this comes up in the first Google search result, I'll also add that you may also have to enable the option if the colour you have selected isn't working. This is located in various places:
Text Editor, [Basic, C#], Advanced, "Highlight references to symbol under cursor"
Text Editor, C++, Advanced, "Disable Reference Highlighting"
Has the menu & toolbar customization functionality in VS2010 been reduced?
I can't seem to be able to select an icon for an added command, nor set it to be icon-only. Previous versions of Visual Studio supported this functionality and even allowed the creation/editing of custom icons.
Is this something that has suffered as a result of the move to the WPF-authored UI or am I missing something?
Seems like this functionality was cut from Visual Studio 2010. This post has some info in the comments: Customizing Visual Studio 2010
Specifically - "Unfortunately assigning or editing icons to commands through Customize dialog is not possible in VS2010. It is one of the features got cut for lack of time. This is however something we'll consider adding back in next version."
The reply also has a longer explanation of a workaround.
As noted in the link mentioned in the answer from #Gordon Mackie JoanMiro, the REASON for the reduced functionality is that the VS Shell team migrated the entire UI (shell and command system) from Win32 to one based solely on WPF. This was a gargantuan task, I would imagine. However, a couple workarounds are now available:
You can export previously saved settings from VS 2008 and import them into VS 2010. That includes command bar customizations (as noted by #Don)
A more recent blog-post contains detailed instructions for using a new extension to VS2010 (available on Visual Studio Gallery) that allows users to change the images on the command UI. (Note that the old drag&drop customization interface is still not supported in this new extension.)
If you have custom icons, any attempt to make ANY changes to the tool bar will result in the custom icons disappearing and being replaced by text when you restart VS2010.
The only way I found to get my custom icons without text into VS2010 is to open VS2008, set up all of the tool bars the way I want, including custom icons, then export the settings (Tools| Import and Export Settings). Then open VS2010 and import those settings. Tedious, I know, but it allows me to have a down arrow icon that searches for the next instance of the word my cursor is on.
I have been trying to customize VS2010 toolbars/keyboard and what took a few minutes in previous versions takes hours now. The new system looks real pretty but is useless in practice. Apart from the fact you just can't do (like change the appearance of buttons as mentioned above) the things you can do are extremely time-consuming and annoying.
Why is it every new version of VS loses something really useful? Other examples:
VC++5 introduced a new HTML help system. Pressing F1 on a function name used to immediately show help for that function. After VC++5 getting context help became annoyingly much slower, and is still very slow (and inaccurate).
VS.Net (aka VS2002 or VC++7) had a useless bookmark system compared to VC++6. VS2010 bookmarks are better but not perfect.
VS.Net removed the search state buttons "whole word", "case sensitive" etc. These were possibly the most useful buttons ever as they quickly allowed you to see why a search may have failed.
I found a great extension: CommandingImage
It does not have an icon editor, but you can create your images as 16x16 png format (for transparency) and import it (I recommend Paint.Net)
Dave, here's how to add toolbar buttons:
1) in the IDE, find the down arrow looking thing on the far right of a toolbar and click on Add Remove Buttons, Customize
2) in the Customize window select the Menu Bar radio button then select the appropriate menu bar that you want to add a button to
3) click the "Add Command..." button
4) select the appropriate Category and Command button that you want to add, then click OK.
The command button you selected will be added to the menu bar you selected. You can move the button up or down.
I think this is what you are looking for.
Good luck!
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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