I am using Visual Studio 2015 and I'm trying to learn keyboard shortcuts. I cannot find a shortcut that changes focus to the menu bar. Does it exist? Similar to Ctrl + Alt + L to change to the solution explorer.
I am aware of Ctrl + Tab, but I want to be able to access the whole menu bar without having to reach for my mouse.
I just figured it out myself. It is Alt + first letter of the tab.
So to access the File tab. Alt + F
Or Project tab. Alt + P
Is there a keyboard shortcut in Visual Studio (aside from CTRL+TAB and selection) that would take me from inside a document directly into the solution explorer? I don't want to customize any shortcuts or change any default behavior.
CTRL+ALT+L
should shift focus to the Solution Explorer.
For visual studio 2012 use:
CTRL+[ + S this selects your current document in the solution explorer.
When using VS 2012 with the Visual C# 2005 keyboard mapping scheme:
CTRL+W, S
I find this easier to memorize: All shortcuts beginning with CTRL+W are for opening or navigating to W indows:
CTRL+W, S: S olution Explorer
CTRL+W, E: E rror list
CTRL+W, R: R esourceview
CTRL+W, A: Command window (A ction ...)
CTRL+W, T: T askview
CTRL+W, Q: Find Symbol Results
CTRL+W, X: Toolbo x
CTRL+W, C: C lassview
CTRL+W, P: P roperties
CTRL+W, B: B ookmarks
...
In Visual Studio 2012 you can now use CTRL+; as this is the default keyboard shortcut for the solution explorer search box.
On my windows 7 machine : Ctrl+ALT+L locks the computer.
For me
: Shift+ALT+L
works. (This could also be a resharper configuration)
shortcut ctrl [, S will focus current open file/document in solution explorer.
setting checkbox to true in "Track active in Solution Explorer" will automatically focus current open file/document in solution explorer (Tools->Options->Projects and solutions->General->"Track Active Item in Solution Explorer"=true
The default keyboard shortcut for opening/jumping to Solution Explorer is Ctrl + Alt + L.
Extended above : command name for sync tab with solution explorer is "SolutionExplorer.SyncWithActiveDocument"
Visual Studio
2015 and 2017 (by default) VS 2017 Shortcuts
Ctrl + [, S
Runs Keyboard Shortcut
SolutionExplorer.SyncWithActiveDocument
ReSharper
In Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 (by default) Resharper Docs
Shift + Alt + L
Which runs Resharper's Keyboard Shortcut
Resharper.Resharper_LocateInSolutionOrAssemblyExplorer
Both
Focus Solution Explorer
Highlight document
Scroll / expand nodes (as required to show that document)
Difference
Resharper's version also works with decompiled code. Locating decompiled symbols in the Assembly Explorer window.
To customise / it doesn't work :
Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard
Search shortcut name (e.g. SolutionExplorer.SyncWithActiveDocument)
Assign (in Global) to Keyboard shortcuts as you like
I had this problem on a new machine build with VS 2013 and R# 8.2.
Keyboard option Resharper.Resharper_LocateInSolutionExplorer was correctly set to Shift+Alt+L, but it seemed to be only opening a parent folder and not selecting the actual file. As recommended in another post I enabled "Track active in Solution Explorer" in the VS Options.
This didn't fix the problem and wasn't what I want because in very large solutions I don't want the solution explorer jumping around to the current file in use. I disabled the Track feature and restarted VS, the LocateInSolutionExplorer feature then started working correctly. Some sort of shortcut precedence issue?
ctrl + [ + S.
This shortcut will highlight the currently opened document in solution explorer.
For AZERTY keyboards like mine, the default shortcut is Ctrl+), Ctrl+S
Ctrl+Alt+L works fine even in VS 2019.
But if you have reassigned the above key to some other command (by mistake in my case) then the name of the command is View.SolutionExplorer
You can search it in the Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard
or just do Ctrl+Q and search keymap.
And then search View.SolutionExplorer in the Show commands containing: and assign whichever key you want.
We just upgraded from VS2013 to VS2017, and I had to go looking for how to auto-select the active tab in the Solution Explorer. I often have to look for a document by finding a text-string from a screen, and love to have it select the document so I can see where it is.
Tracking the active document has been default behavior for a long time. VS2017 brought over ALL my other preferences, but not this one. Glad I found this thread--Thank you.
Shortcut for "Find Result 1" in Visual Studio?
Hotkeys for Visual Studio 2010 - Alt + vn1
Hotkeys for Visual Studio 2015 - Alt + vnnEnter1
Hotkeys for Visual Studio 2017 - Alt + vnnnEnter1
If you don't feel like customizing your own shortcuts, or you use different environments where you can't always rely on your customization being present, you can always go the old school route of just navigating the menus via hotkeys.
For instance, in Visual Studio 2010, you can just type Alt + vn1.
Typing Alt + v opens up the "View" menu.
Typing n opens up the "Find Results" menu item in the View menu.
Typing 1 selects the "Find Results 1" menu item, thereby opening and setting focus to the "Find Results 1" window.
Likewise, Alt + vn2 opens up the "Find Results 2" window.
If you do this enough, it's like any other keyboard shortcut, and becomes second nature.
ProTip
You can discover the hotkey shortcut to any menu item you need by just hitting Alt, and looking at the letters that are underlined in the menus. This applies to pretty much any windows program you will ever use.
There's no predefined shortcut for that (at least in VS 2005) but just select Customize... from the Options menu, press the Keyboard... button and then create a suitable shortcut for View.FindResults1.
In Visual Studio Professional 2013 (not sure about the other version) the function key "F8" will take you to the next result in the Find Results window, and "Shift-F8" will take you in the reverse direction (i.e. find previous result).
You can assign keyboard shortcuts as you please through Tools > Customize > keyboard.
In the show commands containing textbox type View.FindResults1.
In the Press shortcut keys textbox type in the shortcuts you want to add and then press the Assign button.
In visual studio 2008 you have the navigation bar with Class Name combo box and Method Name combo box.
What is the shortcut to get inside any of these combo boxes from the code window?
Ctrl + F2 should do it (although it does depend upon which keyboard mapping you are using - Ctrl + F8 is the shortcut in my Visual Studio settings).
In general, the easiest way to find a keyboard shortcut if you know the name of what it is you are looking for is to go to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard and then type its name into the "Show commands containing" box. It will then show you the shortcut(s) currently assigned for the command.
eg. typing navigation into that box shows Ctrl + F8 (for me) in the "shortcuts for selected command" box.
I understand this has been asked, but has a direct shortcut key been created for the second navigation box in visual studio 2010?
Is there a shortcut in VS 2005 or resharper to close the current file. or "save and close" would be even better
Ctrl + F4
Save and close would
Ctrl + S followed with Ctrl + F4
Visual Studio 2015 + Resharper
The question is a bit old. Just wanted to update it with the current solution.
As you can see below, you can also completely customize your shortcuts:
just navigate to Tools > Options
on the left pane, go to Environment > Keyboard
now use the field Show commands containing to search for file.close
select File.Close on the list
click the field Press shortcuts keys
type your desired shortcut, for example, <Ctrl> + W
finally, click Assign
And you're good to go!
Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F4 will save and close the current file.
Tools -> Options -> Keyboard
Find "Windos.CloseDocumentWindow"
And for me, need to set "Use new shortcut in" to "text editor" to override old ctrl+w without delete