Visual Studio tips and tricks (Windows)

Contents

• 1. Text navigation - Part I
• 2. Text navigation - Part II
• 3. Text selection
• 4. Deleting text
• 5. Commenting code
• 6. Bookmarks
• 7. Expanding / Collapsing
• 8. Tabs and windows
• 9. Find and replace
• 10. Running and debugging
• 11. Code snippets
• 12. Formatting code
• 13. Compiling the application
• 14. Make Visual Studio (2022) use VsCode shortcut keys / key bindings

1. Text navigation - Part I

• Ctrl to move the cursor one word at a time
• End to move the cursor to the end of the line
• Home to move the cursor to the beginning of the line

2. Text navigation - Part II

• Page Down to scroll down
• Page Up to scroll up
• Ctrl + Home to jump to the beginning of the file
• Ctrl + End to jump to the end of the file

3. Text selection

• Shift to activate selection
• Shift + Ctrl + Right/Left to select one word at a time
• Shift + End to select from where the cursor is to the end of the line
• Shift + Home to select from the beginning of the line to where the cursor is

4. Deleting text

• Backspace to delete one character to the left of the cursor
• Ctrl + Backspace to delete one word to the left of the cursor
• Del to delete one character to the right of the cursor
• Ctrl + Del to delete one word to the right of the cursor
• Ctrl + L to delete the current line

5. Commenting code

• Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C to mark the selection as a comment
• Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U to remove the comment

6. Bookmarks

• Ctrl + K, Ctrl + K to toggle a bookmark
• Ctrl + W, B to view the Bookmarks window

7. Expanding / Collapsing

• Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M to expand / collapse a code block

8. Tabs and windows

• Ctrl + Tab to cycle through the open tabs
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab to reverse cycle
• Ctrl + F6 to go to the next tab
• Ctrl + Shift + F6 to go to the previous tab
• Ctrl + F4 to close the current tab
• Alt + W + L to close all the open tabs
• Ctrl + , to open the navigate dialog
• Shift + Alt + Enter to toggle the full screen mode

9. Find and replace

• Ctrl + F to display the Find dialog
• Ctrl + Shift + F to display the Find in Files dialog
• F3 to find the next occurrence of the search text
• Shift + F3 to find the previous occurrence
• Ctrl + H to display the Replace dialog
• Alt + R to replace the currently selected occurrence
• Alt + A to replace all occurrences of the search text

10. Running and debugging

• Ctrl + F5 to run the application
• F5 to run the application in the debug mode
• Shift + F5 to stop the debugging session
• F9 to insert or remove a breakpoint
• F10 to step over a method
• F11 to step into a method
• Shift + F11 to step out of a method

11. Code snippets

• class to create a class
• ctor to create a constructor
• prop to create an auto-implemented property
• propfull to create a property with a private field
• equals to override the Equals method of the base Object class
• for to create a for loop
• forr to create a for loop that decrements the loop variable
• foreach to create a foreach loop
• while to create a while loop
• do to create a do loop
• try to create a try/catch block
• tryf to create a try/finally block
• interface to create an interface

12. Formatting code

• Tab to move the selection one tab stop to the right
• Shift + Tab to move the selection one tab stop to the left
• Ctrl + K, Ctrl + F to format the code

13. Compiling the application

• Ctrl + Shift + B to build the application without running it
• F8 to cycle through the errors
• Alt + Tab to switch between the open applications
• Ctrl + R to refresh the current page in the browser

14. Make Visual Studio (2022) use VsCode shortcut keys / key bindings

• Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard