I've finally joined the 21st century and got a second monitor. I can merrily undock all the side windows (Solution Explorer, ToolBox etc) and plonk them anywhere I like on either monitor. I can't though figure out how to undock a code window. Is it possible? (I'm using vs2008).
Multi monitor is a key functionality of the new vs 2010 as was requested by a lot of devs.
Actually there is a way to do that.
You just need to install a FREE addon from Exact Magic named StudioTools
It has this feature called "Tear Off Editor Window".
You just activate the tab you want to tear off and from the StudioTools manu select Tear Off Editor.
I also strongly recommend you check out the rest of the features, especially the "Smart Goto" which rocks!
Just for you (VS2010) ;-p
You could resize Visual Studio to cover both monitors, then right-click the code window and click New Vertical Tab Group
The "Tear Off Editor Window" feature in Studio Tools from Exact Magic is I think the only option if can't just extend the application over your monitors, if you have multiple monitors of different sizes or a mix of portrait and landscape orientation.
However you cannot download Studio Tools from the original site as they were bought by another company who no longer support the software. You can download it from the the Wayback Machine: Studio Tools Download Link
Related
I guess I have hundreds opens files in my VS2015 now and it is really a headache to find the one which I need. I remember seeing somebody's VS screen which can pick up some tabs and list them in the left panel of visual studio. Is that a add-on or some configuration is built-in options?
Maybe it was my Task Canvas extension that lets you open several small editor windows as tabs in one panel.
Is there any way to "pin" a document into a fixed position? I want to keep the "Source Control Explorer" tab on the far left and always open new documents to the right of it.
However, VS 2010 tends to add documents at the very left. I want "Source Control Explorer" on the very far left so I always know where to find it.
I can think of two different ways of doing this. The first one uses only options that are built into Visual Studio 2010 but is more limited and may not work 100% of the time. The other one requires that you install an extension, but is much more powerful, dependable, and even adds some other useful features.
You can configure Visual Studio to always open new tabs to the right of existing tabs, just like a web browser would. (Personally, I prefer this option.) To do this, open the options dialog (Tools → Options), expand the "Environment" category, click on "Documents" and check the "Insert documents to the right of existing tabs" box (see screen shot).
The key to making this work for you is to ensure that you always open the Source Control Explorer first before opening any other code windows, and then never close it. That way, it will always be on the far left, and all of the code windows you open will be inserted to the right of it.
Like I mentioned above, the advantage of this approach is that it uses a setting built into Visual Studio and doesn't require that you install anything extra. All you have to do is flip a switch. The disadvantage is that it isn't 100% dependable—if you close the Source Control Explorer and re-open it, you'll have to remember to drag it back into position at the far left or it won't be there when you go to look for it.
You can install Microsoft's Productivity Power Tools extension (available from the Visual Studio gallery), which adds the ability to pin tabs (among lots of other neat features) to the VS IDE. There's a great run-down of the features added specifically to the document tab well here, but the feature you're most interested in is pinned tabs. You can even show pinned tabs in a separate row!
This is as close to a perfect solution as it gets, but it does have the disadvantage of requiring you to install something extra. In some environments and for some people, that can be a deal killer. Too many extensions can also slow things down, and later versions of Visual Studio often seem to be slow enough already. (Though, for what it's worth, I use the PPT extension on about half of my VS installations and I haven't noticed that it has caused any significant issues.)
Visual Studio 2010 has UI for editing the buttons in the toolbars of the main window. Is it possible to do the same thing for the tool window toolbars?
Even if there is no UI, I am willing to alter files manually to get the expected result. Basically, the problem I am trying to solve is that some tool windows hide the buttons that I want to use and show buttons that I don't use. I would like to reorder them.
No.
Hmm that answer was not long enough.
It is not possible.
In Visual Studio, you are able to dock code windows in horizontal and vertical tab groups (something you can also do with tool windows).
However, when doing so you may end up with a lot of redundant screen space. What would be ideal would be if you could mix docking orientations for code windows. This is possible with tool windows in Visual Studio 2010. Here is an image showing the feature used for tool windows:
My question is: is it possible to get this same functionality with the code windows - i.e. being able to mix horizontal and vertical docking, like with the tool windows shown? I've heard rumours that its possible, but I've been unable to find any truth in that.
I too wish this was a naitive feature in visual studio, but there is one workaround by using the 'floating tab group' feature of visual studio
Move the visual studio main window out of the way (maybe to another monitor, or to smallest area of the monitor needed to see the tooling windows)
"Tear out" or Right Click > Float on the desired tab
Position the tab to your desire (I suggest using WinSplitRevolution, via codinghorror)
Repeat, note that you can move a tab to an existing 'floating' tab group
And voila!
There are some setbacks, some commands will pop up over the main tooling window instead of your current tab group etc. but its still pretty nice. I'm not sure if there's any changes coming in VS2012, but I haven't heard about anything related.
I hear that Visual Studio 2010 has "Multi-Monitor Support". Yet now that I am using it, I see no difference from VS2008.
I still have to resize all my windows when switching from one monitor to two and back again.
Is there somekind of Profile or setting I am missing? For example, Delphi lets you save desktop profiles that record where you like specific windows. Switching from single to dual monitors is as simple as selecting a different desktop profile.
Is there something similar in VS2010 that I am missing?
Multi-monitor support refers to the ability for you to undock a code window and drag it to another monitor. Try dragging on the tab of a code window into your other monitor.
ScottGu has an excellent blog post on this subject
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/08/31/multi-monitor-support-vs-2010-and-net-4-series.aspx
Just drag the editor tabs out and onto your other monitor and witness the glory.
In VS2008 you could detach things like the solution explorer and put them onto a different monitor, but source code pages were forced to stay on one monitor.