Visual Studio’s Object Browser is a powerful tool that can help developers to better “see” and understand their projects, and projects they may be working with.

Here’s what Visual Studio’s help says about it:

The Object Browser lets you select and examine the symbols available for use in projects. You can open the Object Browser from the View menu, or by clicking the Object Browser button on the main toolbar.

There are three panes: an Objects pane on the left, a Members pane on the upper right, and a Description pane on the lower right. If you resize the Object Browser into a single column, the Objects pane moves to the top, the Members pane to the middle, and the Description pane to the bottom.

View Object Browser

Ctrl + Alt + J

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

A great feature of Windows is the Alt + Tab navigator window. It allows user to quickly toggle between running applications. And Visual Studio has it’s equivalent of this Windows feature. This allows you to see and to navigate Active Tool Windows and Active Files. And you can see a thumbnail of the selected item.

 

Ctrl + Tab Navigator Window

Ctrl + Tab

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

There is search, and then there is search. So in the beginning we had Quick Find: Ctrl + F. Quick Find worked fine, but wasn’t perfect. For one thing, Quick Find bring up a dialog that always automagically end up covering the most critical sections of your code, always. It has a LOT of options: where to look, match case, match whole word, search up, search hidden text, use regular expressions, and more. In other words, it is a bit unwieldy to use in simple day-to-day searches. I’m sure there are situations where people really need to have two-handed swords, but most of us are happy to make dinner with a simple kitchen knife.

That’s where the keyboard shortcut for incremental search comes in. It is great. No massive dialogs to get in the way. If you have already used Firefox’s incremental search feature then you are familiar with how easy and powerful this method is. If not, fire up Visual Studio now and give it a try. You have a real treat in store for you.

Incremental Search

Ctrl + I

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

I noticed today that Twitter has been very stable lately. Actually, I really hadn’t noticed any downtime in almost a week. I decided to check http://status.twitter.com/ and find out if this is true. From what I saw, there has only been 104 minutes of unscheduled down time in the first 11 days of July. That’s less than 10 minutes of downtime a day. Good job, guys!

Twitter really has a lot of potential to bring people together by making us more transparent to each other. For example, if you only know me from my blog, then there is a lot about me that you don’t know. Friend and family know me in some ways, and coworkers know me in some ways. Depending on what I decided to share on Twitter, my friends and family can learn a lot more about what I am working on at work, and my coworkers can learn a lot more about what is going on at home. All of this in easy to digest 140 maximum character messages.

My Twitter URL: @CJCraft

As much as I like what Twitter can do, it wasn’t long ago that I was become very irritated with the frequent “Twitter Blackouts” that were occurring on an almost daily basis. A lot of people were considering leaving Twitter, and the thought crossed my mind a couple times. I was really started to get frustrated with Twitter, and I wasn’t the only one:

Without Twitter many people had to resort to drastic measures to fill the void. One poor soul even had to the leave the side of his computer, and actually build a real life version of the Twitter Fail Whale.

Others made online portals dedicated to the phenomena: http://failwhale.com/

And to top it off, you can even follow the Fail Whale on Twitter: @FailWhale 

 

Yeah, I “failed” for it too. I couldn’t resist, so I made a Twitter photo mosaic that is composed from all the friends pictures of the top 100 most popular Twitter users. 

 

 

 

Resources I used in creating: Too Many Tweets: A Twitter Photo Mosaic.

• Ranks the most popular Twitter users.
  • http://www.twitterholic.com/ 
• Get File Name from URL (C#/.NET)
  • http://www.thejackol.com/2007/04/10/get-file-name-from-url-cnet/
• Where is my Twitter ID number?
  • http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/where_is_my_twitter_id_number
• Scott Hanselman: The Weekly Source Code 22
  • http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheWeeklySourceCode22CAndVBNETLibrariesToDiggFlickrFacebookYouTubeTwitterLiveServicesGoogleAndOtherWeb20APIs.aspx
• Change File Extension
  • http://bytes.com/forum/thread486309.html
• How to make your own photo mosaics
  • http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/19/how-to-make-your-own-photo-mosaics/
• Twitter is over capacity
  • http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3045/2567701776_89cd1ca33e_o.jpg
• Twitter fail whale
  • http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20080630/twitter-fail-whale-kinetic-sculpture/

It is kind of funny how a feature that is easily argued as unnecessary and  superfluous can be a feature you find yourself using over and over. That’s exactly the kind of feature the Make Lowercase and Make Uppercase keyboard shortcuts are for Visual Studio. It might not be a feature you even use every day, but when you do finally end up needing this one it is such an incredibly useful feature.

Don’t believe me? How long would the following have taken to do by hand?

it is kind of funny how a feature that is easily argued as unnecessary and  superfluous can be a feature you find yourself using over and over. that’s exactly the kind of feature the make lowercase and make uppercase keyboard shortcuts are for visual studio. it might not be a feature you even use every day, but when you do finally end up needing this one it is such an incredibly useful feature.

IT IS KIND OF FUNNY HOW A FEATURE THAT IS EASILY ARGUED AS UNNECESSARY AND  SUPERFLUOUS CAN BE A FEATURE YOU FIND YOURSELF USING OVER AND OVER. THAT’S EXACTLY THE KIND OF FEATURE THE MAKE LOWERCASE AND MAKE UPPERCASE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ARE FOR VISUAL STUDIO. IT MIGHT NOT BE A FEATURE YOU EVEN USE EVERY DAY, BUT WHEN YOU DO FINALLY END UP NEEDING THIS ONE IT IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLY USEFUL FEATURE.

That’s the power of a good shortcut. Quick, simple, and powerful!

Make Lowercase

Ctrl + U

Make Uppercase

Ctrl + Shift + U

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Here’s another powerful tip. Almost every application has a UI, and these days most applications have a rich UI. Its a lot easier to work with an advanced UI in an UI design editor. But it’s a lot easier to do something in a code editor. So what’s a developer to do?

You can always tell a keyboard shortcut is powerful and important when it is given a single key.

Toggle Code / Design Views

F7

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

This one is huge. You really need to learn this one, if you don’t already know and use it. Anytime you are working with code you, you will need to comment parts of and uncomment parts of it. It is just a part of a developer’s life. The mechanic will get his hands dirty, the carpenter will get splinters, and the developer will comment and uncomment code.

I guess the worst way you could comment and uncomment your code is to type it all by hand. Next worse would be to use the mouse and go to Edit menu, Advance menu item, then click Comment Selection or Uncomment Selection. Another option that is to use the Text Editor Toolbar (see below).

 

 

A little better I guess is to use the keyboard accelerator shortcut: Alt, then E, then V, then M for (Comment Selection), or E for (Uncomment Selection).

That’s four okay ways of comment and uncommenting your code, but what is the best way?

Comment Selection

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C

Uncomment Selection

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

This Visual Studio window is so import it has two keyboard shortcuts. Can you guess what window it is? That’s right: it’s the Visual Studio Properties window.

So how many different ways can you come up with to open this window?

View Properties Window

• Use the mouse and show / hide the window
• Use the keyboard accelerators: Alt, then V, then W
• Use the Design View keyboard shortcut: Alt + Enter
• Use the keyboard shortcut: F4

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Microsoft Word has two “interesting” features. One feature is you can generate random text, for example, =rand(3) will generate three random paragraphs of text. The other feature is that Word allows you to make what I like to call “Vertical Block Selections”. See the following picture for an example of both.

Pretty cool, huh? And did you know you can make vertical block selections in Visual Studio? Here’s how:

Vertical Block Selection

Alt + Mouse

Note: The images above and to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So a couple days ago we covered how to display line numbers:

“31 Days of Visual Studio Tips & Tricks – Day 4: Display Line Numbers”.

So now how can we take this one step further. How about an easy way to go to a specific line of code? Think about how often as a developer you need to find a line in a large file of code. Sometimes you find out there is an error on a certain line of code and instead of scrolling down to this line manually you could use a special keyboard shortcut.

Go to Line

Ctrl + G

Definitely one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for Visual Studio.

Note: The image to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)