 | Visual Studio Solution Folders
Large Visual Studio solutions that contain many related projects can become difficult to manage. One way to alleviate this problem is to organise projects into virtual project folders. |
| Visual Studio Solution Items
Visual Studio allows files to be linked to a solution without being added to an individual project. This can be useful for storing documentation, notes and shared items, and including them within source control repositories. |
| Visual Studio Box Selection
Visual Studio 2010 and later versions include the ability to select, copy and paste, or replace rectangular areas of text. This type of selection, known as box or column selection, is similar to the functionality provided by word processors. |
| Disabling the XAML Designer
The XAML designer allows developers to create user interfaces by dragging controls from the toolbox. Sometimes the designer can be slow to load or unstable, in which case it may be useful to disable it for newly loaded windows and controls. |
| Visual Studio 2012 Colour Themes
Visual Studio 2012 allows the font and colour selections to be modified at a fine level of detail to achieve the developer's personal preferences. It also adds the concept of colour themes, which change the entire set of colours with a single setting. |
| Showing the Same Code in Several Windows
When working with large files it is sometimes necessary to view several areas of the code at the same time. If these areas are far apart, it can be useful to view the same source file in multiple Visual Studio editor windows. |
| Visual Studio Code Metrics
Judging the maintainability of an application's source code objectively during code reviews can be difficult. To help, some Visual Studio editions can calculate code metrics, such as cyclomatic complexity, depth of inheritance and lines of code. |
| Switching Visual Studio Window Layouts
Visual Studio provides many windows that are used for designing, developing and debugging software. For developers that work with varying screen resolutions or numbers of screens, it can be useful to store and reload window layout configurations. |
| Visual Studio Preview Tab
Visual Studio 2012 includes a number of improvements that can improve developer productivity. One of the simpler tools is the preview tab, which allows the contents of code files to be viewed without opening them for editing. |
| Disabling Capitalised Menus in Visual Studio 2012
Visual Studio 2012 includes many design changes within the integrated development environment (IDE). One, which has been somewhat controversial, is the use of capitalised menus. For developers who find these distracting, the capitalisation can be removed. |