ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies®

2.5. Peering into a Wall of Windows

Visual Web Developer has scads of work areas that you need to explore at some point. Given this book's "just-in-time" philosophy, here's a look at two windows that you use frequently while creating pages: Solution Explorer and the Properties window.

2.5.1. Organizing files with Solution Explorer

Solution Explorer is where you add files and folders to your Web application, much like you can in Windows Explorer. Figure 2-14 shows how Solution Explorer looks when you start a new Web site.

Figure 2-14. Solution Explorer handles file management during Web site development.

NOTE

Visual Web Developer Express doesn't have Solutions but it has a Solution Explorer. Why? Well, the term Solution comes from other Visual Studio products where a Solution acts like a master project.

You can drag files from your file system and drop them into Solution Explorer, but it's more common to add pages, style sheets, files, and folders based on preconfigured starter files called templates. Follow these steps to add an XML file to the project from a template:

1. In Solution Explorer, just under the top row of icons, right-click the project name (which probably looks like C:\...\Website1\).

2. From the context menu, choose Add New.

   The Add New Item dialog box opens with a list of installed templates.

3. From the list of templates, select XML File, and then click Add.

   The starter ...