The Eclipse IDE has a neat little feature that I really miss in Visual Studio.
If I place the cursor on a variable or method name, the IDE will automatically highlight all references to it in the current document within the relevant scope.
I can't seem to find an option to turn on similar behaviour in VS2008 or Resharper 4. I know VS has a Find Usages function, but I'd like to do it automatically on the fly.
Does anyone know of a free addin which will add this functionality?
If you're using ReSharper, you can highlight the usages in the file with Shift-Alt-F11. Place your cursor on the variable you want to find usages of, and press the Shift-Alt-F11 combination.
There is an add-in for Visual Studio that will do something similar called RockScroll.
When you double click on something, it will highlight all occurrences of the item you double clicked. It also changes the vertical scrollbar to a "syntax highlighted thumbnail view" showing an overview of where the item occurs in the file.
I know you mentioned ReSharper, but CodeRush has a nice references window that you can dock and let it search for things on-the-fly or on demand. As a bonus, you can select each usage and it will show you the context surrounding the usage. It also works for methods.
I mentioned CodeRush since they have an express edition, which looks like it includes that feature, but I haven't tried that edition.
Visual Studio 2010 has sorta implemented this, but the feature is somewhat lacking. There is a non-configurable delay between placing the cursor and highlighting.
The RockScroll Addin is not available for Visual Studio 2010 and above.
As a replacement, the free "Highlight all occurrences of selected word" plugin will highlight all occurences of the selected string after a doubleclick. There is no delay as with the native vs2010 highlighter.
It is string-based, which means it works inside comments and string literals.
Microsoft published a tool that sort of does what you want.
Some of my favourite features:
Enhanced Scrollbar
Auto Brace Completion
Ctrl + Click Go To Definition
Open Containing Folder
and the list goes on.
For Visual Studio 2010 and for Visual Studio 2012
Related
I installed Coderush express and I can see that it is installed. (I can see that Camel Case Navigation works). But I can see any other feature works. Based on this page: http://community.devexpress.com/blogs/markmiller/archive/2009/06/25/coderush-xpress-for-c-and-visual-basic-2008.aspx
I cannot see any of these feature to works:
Tab to Next Reference : no effect when I put caret on a variable and press tab ( a tab inserted at the middle of my variable name!)
Highlight All References: pressing ctrl+alt +u add a ascii character to source code.
Quick Navigation: Ctrl +Shift + Q has no effect.
Quick File Navigation : Ctrl +Alt +F brings up F# interactive
Selection Increase and Selection Reduce doesn't work: generate a beep
Declare: ctrl +` has no effect.
and ...
Any idea why this is happening? I am using VS2010.
Presumably due to your using a different version of Visual Studio.
The page you linked to is pretty clear about it being for Visual Studio 2008, but you've included the visual-studio-2010 tag.
CodeRush Xpress fully supports all language features of Visual Basic and C# in Visual Studio 2008.
Edit
Version of Visual Studio wasn't the problem after all.
It appears to just be that the tool makes very little visible change to the Visual Studio user interface, so it looks like it hasn't loaded.
It seems that your installation is corrupt. I would recommend you contact DevExpress Support directly. The support team is better equipped to resolve any issues you face with their products. They offer a very short response time and high qualification. I would also recommend that you reinstall the product.
The features you are asking about, were removed on purpose from VS2010 version of Coderush XPress. More info here:
Experience with Coderush XPress and Visual Studio 2010?
While using NotePad++, and select a certain word, it automatically highlights all matched words?
Does anyone know if there is a Visual Studio addin that can do this? or are there any hidden environment setting that can do this?
Check following addins
Productivity Power Tools addin
The background colour of the highlight in Productivity Power Tools is found under Tools->Options->Productivity Power Tools->Enhanced Scroll Bar->Words Matching The Caret Location Color In The Editor.
or
Use Highlight selected word addin.
I believe Visual Assist can do that. This can be switched on in Settings -> Refactoring -> Automatically highlight references to symbol under cursor.
This is something that is automatically done by VS 2010 though if you are using an older version of VS you can get that functionality with third-party addins. For example I used to use an add-in called RockScroll that could highlight usages in a source file (By double clicking on the word) http://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingRockScroll.aspx.
Also ReSharper has that functionality built into it with Cntl + Shft + F7
I had been looking for a "variable highlight" feature which can be found in Netbeans or Notepad++.
This means, when I select a variable, the same variable which is being scattered around other place will be highlighted as well. This feature is very valuable, to help me scan the code quickly.
May I know is it possible I can have this feature as well in Visual Studio 2008?
Use ReSharper and you will be able many useful features. This particular one is called highlight usage and is available when pressing Ctrl + Shift + F7. The description is at:
http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/features/navigation_search.html#Highlight_Usages
In Visual Studio 2010 this feature is build-in.
I was used to use RockScroll (or MetalScroll), but when I started to use ReSharper my RockScroll start to show some bugs. Well, this is scope to another discussion https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1089493/is-rockscroll-compatible-with-resharper.
But my problem is related, because now without MetalScroll I can't highlight all occurrences, what I consider very useful in many situations.
Someone have another plugin for VS2010 or for ReSharper that do the same or better?
I think you are looking for "Highlight usages in file" This can be access via Shift+Alt+F11 or Ctrl+Shift+F7 depending if you are using VS key bindings or InteliJ bindings. Use either Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down or Ctrl+Alt+PageUp/PageDown to go to next and previous highlights.
You can also use the Ctrl+Alt+G combo to bring up a menu of what to jump to. This can be used to move the cursor to the next occurrence.
You should try Productivity Power Tools for Visual Studio 2010. There are other versions, at least one for Visual Studio 2013 and another one for Visual Studio 2015.
It plays nicely with ReSharper and has this selected text matches highlighting both in the editor and the scrollbars among many other features.
Try the visual studio extension RockMargin which highlight the occurrences on double click (like most IDEs). Works fine with VS 2015 and ReSharper.
A little while ago I managed to get Visual Studio 2008 (C++) into a state where, if I would select a keyword (or any symbol for that matter), by either double clicking on it or highlighting it, all other instances of that symbol within the current file would become highlighted too.
This was a really useful feature.
Since then it's gone away, and I don't know how to get it back.
Please help.
#Sander - that'll be it. Thanks!
I think you've installed RockScroll. It also lights them up in the graphical scrollbar (its main feature)
I use MetalScroll, it's like RockScroll only better; it doesn't interfere with Resharper (a VS must-have) and you can set it up to only highlight if you hold down 'alt' when you double-click.
There is something called "WordLight" by Mikhail Nasyrov.
An add-in for Visual Studio 2008 that highlights all occurrences of a selected text.
It searches and highlights substrings that are currently selected in a text editor.
Can be found at below link
WordLight
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MikhailNasyrov.WordLight