My install of Visual Studio 2008 does not support IE style back and forward navigation withe the mouse in the C# code editor.
Searches show that multiple people have run into this problem but I have yet to find a correct solution.
There's even a VS add-in hack just to work around the "bug".
Any idea why this functionality fails for some users and how to fix it?
You can mitigate the problem by AutoHotKey tool (free, open source).
Let's assume your Visual Studio 2008 has these editor commands and their respective shortcuts:
View.NavigateBackward = Ctrl+-
View.NavigateForward = Ctrl+Shift+-
You should be able to verify these shortcuts in keyboard options. Verified? Let's proceed.
So will you be just fine if your mouse will send these keyboard shortcuts if the Visual Studio's main window is active?
Then install the tool and add the following two mappings:
XButton1::^-
XButton2::^+-
These correspond to above keyboard shortcuts: ^ = Ctrl, + = Shift, - = -
Using AutoHotKey icon in notification area, reload definition file you just updated. Now your mouse buttons should produce the above shortcuts. Test them.
If they work for you in Visual Studio editor, you can limit them only to Visual Studio main window, otherwise they work across the entire desktop:
SetTitleMatchMode, RegEx
#IfWinActive, .*- Microsoft Visual Studio
XButton1::^-
XButton2::^+-
#IfWinActive
Feel free to adjust title-matching regex if needed.
Do not forget to reload definitions file to apply any changes you made.
Bonus:
And here are some other handy operations if you are holding Shift or Ctrl:
(You have those mouse buttons, let's use them... for commands across the entire desktop.)
+XButton1::^c
+XButton2::^v
^XButton1::^x
^XButton2::^z
(Letters must be lowercase, because uppercase means Shift+letter.)
(And always make sure you are running AHK elevated (as administrator.))
Enjoy!
Visual Studio 2008 is an editor and the apps built in it can also be built in any later version such as Visual Studio 2015. Not trying to be flippant, but the fix is to move to a later version of Studio. If money is a factor look into the Community version. (See Free Dev Tools - Visual Studio Community 2015)
Related
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.
The title pretty much explains the whole question. I'm using Visual Studio 2010 Premium, I like the Navigate Backward command for when I right click on something and do go to definition and then I want to go back to where I was Navigate Backward works. But I'm so used to my mouse button button doing that, I've noticed I've starting using it in Visual Studio and expecting it to go back but it doesn't. I know how to change the command to a different key press, but is there a way to make it work on a mouse button?
This seems to be a (pointless) Limitation of the C++ IDE in Visual Studio. In C# the mouse buttons work as expected, but not in C++.
There are several Addins for Visual Studio to cover this functionality, I'll point you to the one that I found in this answer:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/57119/Forward-Backward-Code-Navigation-with-the-Mouse-Th
This Add-In worked for me. I could also upgrade it to Visual Studio 2012 by simply changing the Version-Tag in the Addin-file to "11.0".
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.
My website has several nested folders and sometimes long file names, so sometimes only 4 tabs can be opened at a time.
Can vs2010 be made to show only file names and leave out any path information?
Can the max displayed length for tabs be set?
I know the window can be split so top and bottom both have their own tabs.
For example (using the "Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools"):
Showing the files:
...r.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
...s.aspx.cs
For example (not using the Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools):
Showing the files:
Adminstration/...quests.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...tUsers.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...ctions.aspx.cs
Adminstration/...eBanks.aspx.cs
Try installing the "Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools" extension from the Extension Manager in VS. It adds a new section to the standard option dialogue that allows you to customise what they call the "Document Tab Well."
It doesn't let you truncate the filename, but you can change the way they draw and scroll, which might be enough to help.
It does allow more tabs at a time, but it severly shortens the amount of file name you see. So while it allows editing more files, you won't know what file you are editing.
For now I'm using the trial version of Tab Studio
In VS2010, go to Tools - Extension Manager. Go to the online gallery and search for this extension:
Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools
This extension, once installed, gives you extensive control over the document well, including setting a max tab width and much more. I love this extension, and have had zero issues customizing tab behavior to suit my preferences. Hope this helps.
Fixed in Visual Studio 2012
This has finally been fixed in Visual Studio 2012:
So i see:
PendingRequests.aspx (rather than ...r.aspx.cs)
ImportUsers.aspx.cs (rather than ...s.aspx.cs)
SearchTransactions.aspx.cs (rather than ...ctions.aspx.cs)
ImportTimeBanks.aspx.cs (rather than eBanks.aspx.cs)
Now if we could just get the entire Visual Studio ecosystem to:
return to the use of Left, Right arrows to navigate overflow tabs
open new tabs on the right
just like Windows has been doing in 1994, and Visual Studio would start to almost become a user-friendly Windows application.
I have been using this excellent extension for VS2010 that solve your problems: Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools.
It is a bundle of several extensions, but the most notable for you is the Document Well 2010 Plus. It allows you to configure the document tabs: to be the constant width, colour-coded by project, pinned, etc...
You can toggle the extensions that you do not want by editing the manifest file in:
~\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\Microsoft\Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools\
#IanBoyd: I agree, it doesn't solve the problem 100% however it helps (which is why most of the answers to this question suggest it). With the Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools add-on you can a) set the maximum tab width using one tab options, b) setup some colour categorizing rules to help differentiate between projects/file types.
In VS2010, my workflow relies upon several add-ons and keyboard shortcuts to manage my workspace; for example I use CTRL + Tab to switch between active documents, use the pin-tab feature and colour coding from Power Pro Tools, the open solution file dialog from Visual Assist X, and re-open last edited file from Resharper.
This has been answered already here:
Remove path from tab name in Visual Studio 2010
Install the productivity power tools extension and it should do it by default!
Cheers.
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