Enhancing Your Productivity with Visual Studio: Essential Tips
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Visual Studio presents numerous features and shortcuts designed to improve your coding experience. This article outlines several strategies that can help elevate your productivity while using Visual Studio.
Having utilized Visual Studio for over a decade, I’ve gathered a collection of valuable shortcuts and functionalities that streamline my workflow. Below is a comprehensive list of the features and shortcuts that will be discussed. Many of these are part of my daily routine, while others are used less frequently. I hope you find these tips beneficial.
- Searching for a file by name
- Minimizing and maximizing all methods in a class
- Commenting and uncommenting multiple lines
- Moving a line of code to a different position
- Navigating to a method implementation
- Automatically formatting your code
- Using code snippets
- Renaming methods or classes
- Jumping to a specific line
- Utilizing bookmarks
- Finding or replacing text
- Building your project
- Debugging shortcuts
- Saving all files
- Entering fullscreen mode
- Quick actions
- Accessing the immediate window
- Adding a watch
- Using Quick Watch
- Exploring the call stack window
- Finding all references
- Organizing and removing unnecessary usings
- Automatically implementing interface methods
- Minimizing all items within the solution
- Opening the Solution Explorer
- Surrounding code
- Automatically generating a method based on existing code
- Deleting or disabling all breakpoints
- Adding a new project
- Cutting an entire line
- Extracting a method
- Accessing the properties window
- Viewing the error list window
- Tracking a file in the solution
- Launching a web application in incognito mode
- Making vertical selections
- Modifying multiple lines simultaneously
- Updating multiple texts or variables at once
- Navigating between open files
- Closing an open window
- Automatically breaking a line
- Returning to your last code change
- Pasting JSON as a class
- Using GitHub Copilot Chat
1. Searching for a file by name Finding files or navigating through folders in larger projects can be quite tedious. Fortunately, Visual Studio allows you to easily locate any file, type, or member within your project. Simply press Ctrl + , or Ctrl + T and search for the name or part of it.
Alternatively, you can use Ctrl + 1 + F/T/M to search for a specific file, type, or member. For instance, Ctrl + 1 + F opens a window to search for a specific file.
2. Minimizing and maximizing all methods in a class Visual Studio offers a practical way to manage method visibility within a class, which is especially useful for classes with multiple methods. Use Ctrl + M + O to minimize all methods in a class.
To maximize all methods, press Ctrl + M + L.
3. Commenting and uncommenting multiple lines To comment multiple lines at once, highlight the desired lines and press Ctrl + K + C.
To uncomment, use Ctrl + K + U.
4. Moving a line of code to a different position If you need to reposition a line of code, hover your mouse over the line and press Alt + Up/Down arrow.
5. Navigating to a method implementation To navigate to a method's implementation, press F12 to go to the interface. If you want to go directly to the method implementation, use Ctrl + F12.
6. Automatically formatting your code You can format your code automatically by pressing Ctrl + K + D, which can enhance the readability of your code.
7. Using code snippets Visual Studio has a feature that autocompletes code for you. For example, when writing a for loop, type for and then press Tab + Tab to autocomplete it.
You can also use the prop keyword followed by Tab + Tab to create a property.
8. Renaming methods or classes To rename a method or class automatically, click on its name and press Ctrl + R + R, then enter the new name.
Press Enter to rename or Shift + Enter to preview changes.
9. Jumping to a specific line To navigate to a specific line number in your code, press Ctrl + G and enter the line number.
10. Utilizing bookmarks Bookmarks are a helpful way to mark important lines of code for quick navigation. Set a bookmark by placing the cursor on the desired line and pressing Ctrl + K, Ctrl + K.
To navigate to the next bookmark, press Ctrl + K + N, and for the previous one, use Ctrl + K + P. You can remove a bookmark using the same Ctrl + K, Ctrl + K shortcut.
11. Finding or replacing text To search for specific code, press Ctrl + Shift + F and set your search criteria, such as match case or scope.
You can also use the same shortcut for the "Replace in Files" feature.
12. Building your project To initiate a project build quickly, press Ctrl + Shift + B.
13. Debugging shortcuts When debugging, several shortcuts can enhance your experience:
- F5: Start the project
- F10: Step over a method
- F11: Step into a method
- Ctrl + F5: Stop project execution
14. Saving all files If there are unsaved changes, indicated by an asterisk next to the file name, press Ctrl + S to save the current file. To save all modified files at once, use Ctrl + Shift + S.
15. Entering fullscreen mode To focus solely on your code, press Ctrl + Alt + Enter for fullscreen mode. Use the same shortcut to return to the normal view.
16. Quick actions The "Quick Actions" feature in Visual Studio provides instant recommendations to improve code quality. Access these suggestions by pressing Ctrl + ..
17. Accessing the immediate window The Immediate window allows you to interact directly with your code during debugging. You can access it via Debug > Windows > Immediate or by pressing Ctrl + Alt + I.
18. Adding a watch The "Add Watch" feature allows you to monitor variables' values during debugging. Right-click on the element and select "Add Watch."
19. Using Quick Watch For quick inspections, use the Quick Watch feature by right-clicking on the element and choosing "QuickWatch…" or by pressing Shift + F9.
20. Exploring the call stack window The Call Stack window is essential for understanding execution flow during debugging. Open it by pressing Ctrl + Alt + C.
21. Finding all references To quickly find all references to a specific method, click its name and press Ctrl + F12 to display a list of all locations where the method is used.
22. Organizing and removing usings To maintain code cleanliness, you can organize your using directives by pressing Ctrl + R, Ctrl + G, which will remove unnecessary directives and sort them alphabetically.
23. Automatically implementing interface methods To quickly implement interface methods, click Ctrl + . on the interface name and select "Implement interface." All required methods will be generated for you.
24. Minimizing all items within the solution To simplify navigation in large projects, utilize the "Collapse All" feature to minimize all folders and their contents in the Solution Explorer.
25. Opening the Solution Explorer You can open the Solution Explorer quickly by pressing Ctrl + Alt + L.
26. Surrounding code To add a block of code inside structures like if, foreach, or for, highlight the code and press Ctrl + K, Ctrl + S to select the desired operation.
27. Automatically generating a method based on existing code The "Generate method" feature helps you create method stubs based on types and parameters in your code. Hover over the method name and press Ctrl + . to generate it.
28. Deleting or disabling all breakpoints To delete all breakpoints, press Ctrl + Shift + F9. You will see a confirmation dialog.
If you prefer to disable rather than delete breakpoints, go to the Debug menu and select "Disable all Breakpoints."
29. Adding a new project To add a new project to your solution quickly, use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N.
30. Cutting an entire line To cut a line wherever your cursor is, use the shortcut Ctrl + X.
31. Extracting a method To extract a block of code into a separate method, highlight the code and press Ctrl + R, Ctrl + M to name the new method.
32. Accessing the properties window To open the properties window for a file, select it and press F4.
33. Viewing the error list window To view errors, warnings, or messages, press Ctrl + + E to open the Error List window.
34. Tracking a file in the solution To find a class in the Solution Explorer without searching manually, keep the file open and click on “Sync with Active Document.”
35. Launching a web application in incognito mode To prevent caching issues when debugging a web app, configure Visual Studio to launch in incognito mode by selecting “Browser With…” and adding the Chrome path with the --incognito argument.
36. Making vertical selections To select multiple lines vertically, hold Alt and select the desired lines.
37. Modifying multiple lines simultaneously To change several lines at once, press Shift + Alt + Up arrow and select the values you wish to modify.
38. Updating multiple texts or variables at once To change several texts or variables simultaneously, click on the text and hold Ctrl + Alt while making your changes.
39. Navigating between open files To switch between open files quickly, use Ctrl + Tab. You can use the up and down arrows to navigate the list of open files.
40. Closing an open window To close an open window like the Immediate Window, press Shift + Esc instead of clicking the close button.
41. Automatically breaking a line To break a line without moving to the end of it, use the Shift + Enter shortcut to insert a new line at the cursor position.
42. Returning to your last code change Quickly return to the last location where you modified code by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Backspace.
43. Pasting JSON as a class To create a class from a JSON structure without manually defining it, open the Program.cs file, go to the Edit menu, and choose "Paste Special > Paste JSON as Classes."
44. Using GitHub Copilot Chat If you have a Copilot license, use Ctrl + + C to open the GitHub Copilot Chat easily.
[Extra] Visual Studio shortcut cheatsheet You can quickly access the Visual Studio shortcut cheatsheet by searching for "Keyboard" in the Feature Search (Ctrl + .).
This will redirect you to the official Microsoft documentation, where you can find numerous shortcuts for Visual Studio.
Conclusion Visual Studio is an excellent integrated development environment (IDE) that offers various features to enhance the coding experience. By applying these tips and shortcuts, you can significantly improve your efficiency and save time while coding.
Thank you for reading!
References Productivity guide for Visual Studio — Microsoft Docs