Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Unleashed

Tag Navigation

One problem with large or complex code files, be they web forms, WPF Windows, or XML documents, is navigation through the multiple levels and layers of nested tags. Envision a web page containing a button within a table within a table within a table. When you are editing the HTML (through either the designer or the editor), how can you tell exactly where you are? Put another way, how can you tell where the current focus is within the markup hierarchy?

Using the Tag Navigator

The tag navigator is Visual Studio’s answer to this question. The navigator appears as a series of buttons at the bottom of the WPF, Web, and XML Schema designers. A breadcrumb trail of tags is shown that leads from the tag that currently has focus all the ...