Visual Studio Hacks
Visual Studio Hacks Tips & Tools for Turbocharging the IDE By James Avery
March 2005
Pages: 500

| Table of Contents | Index | Sample Hacks | Colophon

Table of Contents

  1. Chapter 1 Master Projects and Solutions

    1. Hacks 1-5

    2. Manage Projects and Solutions

    3. Master Assembly and Project References

    4. Organize Projects and Solutions

    5. Hack the Project and Solution Files

    6. Remove SourceSafe Bindings

  2. Chapter 2 Master the Editor

    1. Hacks 6-15

    2. Master the Clipboard

    3. Make Pasting into Visual Studio Easier

    4. Master IntelliSense

    5. Master Regions

    6. Add Guidelines to the Text Editor

    7. Select the Best Editor

    8. Customize Syntax Coloring

    9. Edit the Most Recent File and Project Lists

    10. Refactor Your Code

    11. Use and Share Code Snippets

  3. Chapter 3 Navigating Visual Studio

    1. Hacks 16-23

    2. Take Control of Your Workspace

    3. Find Files Quickly

    4. Search Files Quickly

    5. Search for Patterns in Your Files

    6. Navigate Your Source Code

    7. Never Forget a TODO Again

    8. Hack the Mouse

    9. Enhance the Tabs in Visual Studio

  4. Chapter 4 Customizing Visual Studio

    1. Hacks 24-35

    2. Create Your Own Shortcuts

    3. Customize Menus and Toolbars

    4. Create Custom Window Layouts

    5. Customize the Toolbox

    6. Package Your Toolbox Settings

    7. Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions

    8. Hack the Registry

    9. Save and Move Your IDE Settings

    10. Enable IntelliSense for HTML and XML Documents

    11. Add an External Tool

    12. Customize Your Project Build Process

    13. Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results

  5. Chapter 5 Debugging

    1. Hacks 36-43

    2. Set Breakpoints

    3. Troubleshoot Breakpoints

    4. Customize Visual Studio's Reaction to Exceptions

    5. Debug Scripting Code

    6. Debug SQL Server

    7. Debug a Running Process

    8. Debug a Failing Application

    9. Write a Custom Visualizer

  6. Chapter 6 Speed Hacks

    1. Hacks 44-58

    2. Speed Up Visual Studio

    3. Load Files from the Command Prompt

    4. Master the Command Window

    5. Build a Custom Tool

    6. Extend the Application Configuration File

    7. Generate Strongly Typed DataSets

    8. Define Templates for Generating Code

    9. Create a Macro

    10. Generate Code with Macros

    11. Create Connection Strings Quickly

    12. Quickly Sign Assemblies

    13. Update Project References Quickly

    14. Automatically Add using and Imports Statements

    15. Insert Commonly Used Code Automatically

    16. Move Quickly Between Source Control Providers

  7. Chapter 7 Help and Research

    1. Hacks 59-67

    2. Get Help

    3. Search the Internet from Visual Studio

    4. Redirect Help to Google

    5. Use P/Invoke with Ease

    6. Examine the IL Generated by Your Code

    7. Examine the Innards of Assemblies

    8. Follow the Rules with FxCop

    9. Generate Statistics on Your C# Code

    10. Profile Heap Allocations

  8. Chapter 8 Comments and Documentation

    1. Hacks 68-72

    2. Master C# XML Comments

    3. Create Comments Faster

    4. Create XML Comments with VB.NET

    5. Create Documentation from XML Comments

    6. Integrate Your Own Documentation into Visual Studio

  9. Chapter 9 Server Explorer Hacks

    1. Hacks 73-76

    2. Access Performance Counters

    3. Diagram and Modify a Database

    4. Script Your Database

    5. Enumerate Processes, Drives, Shares, and More

  10. Chapter 10 Work with Visual Studio Tools

    1. Hacks 77-82

    2. Master the Visual Studio Command Prompt

    3. Launch Visual Studio from the Command Prompt

    4. Stress Test Web Applications

    5. Obfuscate Your Code

    6. Generate Code from UML

    7. Generate UML Design Documents from Code

  11. Chapter 11 Visual Studio Tools for Office

    1. Hacks 83-85

    2. Install Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003

    3. Create a Command Bar in Word 2003

    4. Display a Windows Form from Excel 2003

  12. Chapter 12 Extending Visual Studio

    1. Hacks 86-91

    2. Automate Visual Studio

    3. Access Visual Studio from Standalone Applications

    4. Create a File Template

    5. Writing a Visual Studio Add-in

    6. Find the Name of That Command Bar

    7. Change the Icon for Your Add-in

  13. Chapter 13 Enhancing Visual Studio

    1. Hacks 92-100

    2. Manage Add-ins

    3. Run Unit Tests Inside Visual Studio

    4. Spellcheck Your Code and Comments

    5. View an Outline of Your Controls

    6. Blog Code from Visual Studio

    7. Collapse and Expand Your Code

    8. Combine the Visual Studio Command Prompt and the Command Window

    9. Generate Web Services Code

    10. Test Regular Expressions in Visual Studio

  1. Colophon

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