In Eclipse, I often include all project-related material (including documents in PDF, Microsoft, and OpenDocument formats) in the project. Is this possible with Visual Studio, especially to the point where if I attempt to open the file from inside Visual Studio, it will open in the external application?
Yes, just right-click your project in the solution explorer and goto Add > Existing Item...
Though -- I'd recommend making a new folder to keep this in.
Yes, you can make sure that when you open it it opens with the correct application. Just right-click the file once it's added into the solution explorer and select Open With... and make sure you set the default application that way from that point forward you can just double-click your files.
If you have access to use Sharepoint Services with your source control than that would also make life much easier, thanks for reminding me Chris!
I don't want to take away from Chad's answer. However, I will add that TFS has specific areas for project documentation to be stored in sharepoint.
Related
Probably it's a stupid question but i would like to open aspx and cs files from the windows explorer without opening a new instance of visual studio, is this possible?
Greets,
Firmino
There are several ways you can improve your experience opening files in VS.
You can use drag and drop
Troubleshooting: You can't drag and drop between apps in Windows if one of them is running with admin rights and another is not. Normally, you don't need either of Explorer or VS to run with admin privileges.
Visual studio running with no admin rights will most likely will be reused to open a file when you doubleclick in the Explorer (sometimes it still opens new instance with no sensible reason)
You can use File_Menu->Open->File (Ctrl+O). This will basically open an Explorer instance for you.
You can use File_Menu->Recent files if you have opened desired file recently
You can just add file to the project (and then get rid of it when it's no longer needed) (Shift+Alt+A)
You can use Show All Files feature (a toggle button in Solution Explorer) to view all the files under project folder (recursively), even if they are not included in the project. You cannot see folders higher in hierarchy, but you could make for example a symlink or just a dumb copy
You can file a feature request or a bug report (it can be done from VS itself) to make developers know about this situation
Hope any of those solutions will work for you.
Right Click On The File
Click Open With
And Select Notepad..
It Would Do The JOB
The other day I created a MS visual studio 2010 C# project and started coding. I saved the source frequently, but I did not select a destination to save to (just pressed ctrl+s and assumed the source was being saved). However I had to run and threw my laptop in my backpack on sleep. Unfortunately this laptop (acer aspire 5252 fyi) battery drains extremely quickly when on sleep, and eventually my computer shut off. Now I can't find my source files anywhere and I'm going crazy because I know I saved it and it's several days worth of work.
I tried doing a windows search but couldn't find the project files. I also did a little experiment - I created a new project and without saving the entire solution, I pressed ctrl+s on the source files. Save was successful, but I cannot even find the file that's open in the IDE. Even the "open containing folder option" is grayed out (see screen shot).
I really need these source files back. Obviously it's because I didn't save the solution that the source got wiped out, but where do the source files get saved temporarily before the solution is saved?
Thanks.
You are using Visual Studio's support for temporary projects. Nice feature for quicky test projects (and SO answers) but not a great way to ensure that your projects are still there after VS quits. Programming without source control is similarly inadvisable.
Tools + Options, Projects and Solutions, General. Ensure that the "Save new projects when created" option is ticked to minimize the odds that you'll forget to pick a solution folder. Triple-check that creating a new project now gives you a "Location" property in the dialog.
There is a default location for projects to be saved. That is probably where your files went.
In Visual Studio, on the menu, click Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > General. There is a "Visual Studio projects location".
On my Windows 7 machine, the folder for Visual Studio 2010 is
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects
Your unnamed project is probably saved with a default name like WebSite1.
If you would like to change that default location, here is some information on how to do that.
Visual Studio temporary projects are normally found in *C:\Users\"User Name"\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects* . It is a temporary folder that is deleted as soon as Visual Studio starts up.
How to save a Temporay Project from above link:
To save a temporary project
In Solution Explorer, choose the solution or project that you want to save.
On the menu bar, choose File, Save or Save As.
The Save Project dialog box opens.
In the , Name box, specify a name for the project.
In the Location box, specify where you want to save the project.
Select the Create directory for Solution check box.
Note: This check box is not available for Visual Basic web projects, Visual C# web projects, or other directory-based projects.
In the New Solution Name box, specify a name that differs from the project name.
Select the Add to Source Control check box if you want to add the solution to a version-control database or repository.
Choose the OK button.
Is there any way to change the default directory Visual Studio 2010 uses when you add a source file through Add -> New Item?
Add New Item simply adds the item based on which project directory you're currently in or have selected in your Solution Explorer. If you want to change where it gets added then select the target location in the Solution Explorer first.
This behavior is obvious when right-clicking in the Solution Explorer, but it's also the same when using Project -> Add New Item....
Since my comment seems to be the actual answer, I repost:
In the toolbar of Solution Explorer, there's a button "Show all files" (or similar, I'm using the German version). This switches the view to directories, rather than filters. In this view, you can right-click on the desired target folder to add items.
This does not actually change the default directory, but since you have to click somewhere anyway to add an item, this is the easiest approach.
Note that even when only using Visual C++, I'd recommend the Productivity Power Tools extension, which comes with Solution Navigator. In C++, this is not as powerful as with .NET, but it still has several features that are useful in C++ and can fully replace Solution Explorer.
Try going to tools -> options -> Project and Solutions.
I know this post is old... but maybe someone will stumble upon it... like I did today...
I had the same "problem":
I have a dedicated directory for icons.
When I need to add an icon to the resource file, Visual studio takes me to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE"
To fix the problem, after I "browsed" to the desired folder, I right-clicked the favorites of the "open file" dialog and selected "add current location to Favorites".
Next time you will get this dialog, you simply have to look for the folder in the favorites, and click it.
I am new to visual studio and I am experimenting around with some Windows Services. I have created two solutions and I would like to view both of them at once. Without having to click file->recent projects to switch back and forth.
Ideally this could take place in the solution explorer and just nest the projects, but I am only able to view one solution/project at a time there.
Is there anyway to view multiple solutions/projects in Visual Studio?
This is the way Visual Studio is designed: One solution, one Visual Studio (VS) instance.
Besides switching between solutions in one VS instance, you can also open another VS instance and open your other solution with that one. Next to solutions there are as you said "projects". You can have multiple projects within one solution and therefore view many projects at the same time.
There's a much easier (but not so obvious) way; right click on the Visual Studio icon in the taskbar, then right click on the application name in the popup menu, then click "Open". Windows will then open another instance where you can open another solution in.
If you have two separate solutions, then you cannot view them simultaneously in the same VS instance. However, you can open multiple instances of VS and tab between them.
An alternative would be to import the projects from one solution into the other, thus putting all of your projects into one solution. You can do this by following these steps:
In the Solution Explorer, select the Solution into which you want to import a project. Right-click, and select Add->Existing Project from the context menu.
In the file chooser, find the project file that you want to import (it will end in .XXproj where XX is the language you're using).
Click Open and voila! Your project is imported.
There is a way to store multiple solutions in one instance of VS.
Attempt the following steps:
File > Open > Project/Solution
This will bring up the open project window, notice at the bottom where it says options, select add to solution
Then select the file you want to add and click open
This will then add the solution to your project. You still won't be able to run the same project in a single instance of VS, but you can have all your code organized in one place.
NOTE:
This worked for Visual Studio 2013 Professional
Just right click on the Visual Studio icon and then select "New Window" from the contextual toolbar that appears on the bottom in Windows 8. A new instance of Visual Studio will launch and then you can open your second project.
You can create a new blank solution and add your different projects to it.
You can have multiple projects in one instance of Visual Studio. The point of a VS solution is to bring together all the projects you want to work with in one place, so you can't have multiple solutions in one instance. You'd have to open each solution separately.
Don't know whether this is useful but if you want to work with multiple projects without navigating through projects tree {like multi window} you can try opening VS in another virtual desktop (at least it's possible for Windows 10) by holding Ctrl+win+D. Then open another VS studio and open your other project there. You can switch between projects by Ctrl+win+arrow key {left/right}.
Two ways come to mind...
Open another visual studio window and open the second solution in it.
It would be preferable to add your existing projects to one solution, just right click and add existing project and navigate to the project file(csproj). .... e.g. C:\Users\User\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MySqlWindowsFormsApplication1\MySql Windows Forms Project1\MySql Windows Forms Project1.csproj ....In this second way you might want to setup multiple start up projects i.e. for people with client-server apps or apps with dependencies. ....To do this Select the solution then GoTo: Project>>Properties>>Startup Project>> Select Multiple Startup projects and set actions to Start. When you debug, the selected as start will run.
For interest sake you could open another multiple solution windows to view different projects at the same time. http://www.schwammysays.net/visual-studio-2012-tip-multiple-solution-explorers/
After a long research and different experiments the easiest way "FOR MAC USERS" is to create a script:
open -a "Visual Studio" \
"path to first sln" \
"path to second sln" \
...
:D
File -> New Window. Select the other project in that window. Each project lives in a separate window. You can tab between them.
MAC users - this issue was winding me up, as its not possible to open two different Visual Studio instances at the same time. Ive found a solution that works fine, though its a little unorthodox : get the latest beta testing version, which will install alongside your normal VS install in a separate sandbox (it does this automatically). You can then run both versions side by side, which is enough for what I needed - to be able to examine one project for structure, code etc., while doing the actual coding I need to do in the 'current' VS install instance.
When I open *.ashx files in Visual Studio, I don't have the helpful "Go to Declaration" context menu when right-clicking on a function.
How can I restore this functionality (this is a new install)?
Thanks very much.
Click on the text you want to go to and key F12 if it's not showing up for you.
Much like Windows Operation Systems need to reboot when things start breaking down, Studio sometimes needs a restart if that doesn't work.
Obviously this doesn't get your menu item back, but it's a fix that you might prefer over selecting that from the right-click mouse menu.
This is a shot in the dark since I do not work with ASP-related stuff.
Short Answer
If your *.ashx files belong to a project, open the project first.
Longer Answer
Most of my work in Visual Studio 2008 is with C++ and C# code. If I open a .cpp file or .cs file in VS2008 independent of the project it belongs to, VS2008 doesn't give me the Go To Declaration context menu either. When I open files independent of the project they belong to, VS2008 (or any Visual Studio version for that matter) is little more than a glorified editor. To get the benefit of Go To Declaration and other features, e.g., Intellisense, I have to first open the project and then open the file from within VS2008.
Alternate Answer
If you are already doing this, you might try deleting the .suo file in your project directory and letting VS2008 re-create it.
Apology
Sorry if this was simply stating the obvious. I know I've been frustrated at times when I've opened a file outside the context of its project only to realize what I want to do requires me to open the project anyway. Someone new to Visual Studio might not realize the project is sometimes required.