分类目录归档：Visual Studio

Preview Tab in Visual Studio 11

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How many times have you found that your document tab well overflows with open documents?  Every time you “Go To Definition” or open a search result in another file, that file will be opened.   And that file will remain open until it’s explicitly closed in the editor by the developer.  This is true even when the need for that file was temporary, when it was only needed in order to preview the target content.

Enter the Visual Studio 11 Preview Tab.  The Preview Tab sits on the right-hand side of the document window and is used over and over again anytime such a preview is needed:

This greatly helps to reduce the clutter we’ve all experienced in the Visual Studio document windows.  If you do want previewed content to be more permanent, with a single click you can “promote” the current file from the preview tab into a full-fledged code window.

Search feature in Visual Studio 11

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One of the more prominent advances in the Visual Studio environment enables developers to quickly discover that key piece of information or functionality they need.  Previously, developers would navigate through tool windows, lists, documents, and dialogs looking for a particular file, or a particular option, or a particular assembly to reference, or the right control, or a myriad of other targets.  With Visual Studio 11, search is now integrated throughout the IDE via a set of features we affectionately refer to as “Search Everywhere.”

Want to quickly find the right assembly to reference?  Search is now integrated into the Add Reference… dialog:

Want to quickly find that important command or option you’ve been seeking?  The new Quick Launch feature enables you to search through the thousands of capabilities available in Visual Studio.  Not only does Quick Launch help you to discover commands or options, but as you can see in the screenshot below, it also helps you to learn the keyboard shortcuts for the results.

Want to quickly find a particular file somewhere in your solution?  The new Solution Explorer search feature enables you to filter by file name.  Moreover, Solution Explorer has been augmented to enable peering into the classes and members contained in files, and the tool window’s search capabilities apply to such entries as well.

Have a lot of compilation errors and want to quickly find those matching particular criteria?  Search is also available in the Errors tool window:

Some tool windows not only provide search capabilities, but also deeply integrate them with other components of Visual Studio.  For example, the new Parallel Watch windows provide a “Filter by Boolean expression” box: