Microsoft Visual Studio Tips Part 1 – Basic Editing and Navigation

Here are some notes taken from the book Visual Studio Tipsby Sara Ford.

0-0: Look Up, Change, or Create shortcuts

Tools | Options (select all settings) | Environment-Keyboard | (Press shortcut-keys:)

Press the short-cut key you want to know what it does, and it will be displayed in the box below or enter the command in the (Show commands containing:) and it will show the short-cut.

1-1: Not accidentally copying blank lines

Tools | Options | Text Editor | All Languages | General | Uncheck the (Apply Cut or Copy commands to blank lines when there is no selection)

This will prevent the editor from clearing the clipboard when you accidentally hit Ctrl+C on a blank line.

1-2: Cycle through the Clipboard ring to paste various things

Ctrl+Shift+V will cycle backwards through the last 20 items in your clipboard

1-3: Inserting a line above or below the current line

Ctrl+Enter will open a new line above |Ctrl+Shift+Enter will open a new line below

1-4: Selecting the current word

Ctrl+W anywhere in a word will select the entire word.

1-5: Deleting the next word and preceding word

Ctrl+Del will delete the current word | Ctrl+Backspace will delete the previous word

1-6: Cutting and Deleting the current line

Ctrl+L will delete the current line | Ctrl+Shift+L will delete the current line

1-7: Deleting horizontal white space at the beginning of a line

Put cursor anywhere in white space area, then Ctrl+K + Ctrl+\ will delete the white space

1-8: Dragging sections of code (or text) to a new location

Use mouse to highlight section, then hold Ctrl while dragging with mouse.

1-9: Right-dragging sections of code (or text) to a new location with mouse

Use mouse to highlight section, then Right-Click mouse Hold and Drag code to new location
This allows for either Move or Copy functions.

1-10: Transposing characters, words, and lines

Ctrl+T for characters | Ctrl+Shift+T for words |Alt+Shift+T for lines

1-11: Upper and Lower case characters

Ctrl+Shift+U for Upper Case | Ctrl+U for lower case

1-12: Undo and Redo stacks on the Standard Toolbar

Ctrl+Z single Undo | Ctrl+Y single Redo | Look for the clockwise and counter-clockwise arrows on the toolbar to select and undo/redo multiple changes at one time

1-13: Using the mouse wheel to scroll in all directions

Press and hold the mouse scroll wheel. An icon appears indicating scrolling in all directions. Now move the mouse to what direction you want to scroll, i.e. up, down, right, left. The further away from the icon, the faster it moves.

1-14: Jumping to the top or bottom of the current view without scrolling

Ctrl+Shift+PgUp will select text from cursor to top of window
Ctrl+Shift+PgDn will select text from cursor to bottom of window

1-15: Hiding the vertical and horizontal scroll bars

Tools | Options | Text Editor | General | Display (check or uncheck)

1-16: Using Go-Back Markers to navigate forward and backwards from where you’ve been

Ctrl-Minus will navigate back | Ctrl+Shift+Minus will navigate forward
In the standard Toolbar, locate the Page with Arrows forward and back. You can use these to go forward and backward multiple steps at a time.