Professional Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5 Programming

Useful Features of Visual Studio 2012

The focus of most of this chapter has been on using Visual Studio to create a simple application. It's now time to look at some of the less commonly recognized features of Visual Studio. These features include, but are not limited to, the following items.

When Visual Studio 2012 is first started, you configure your custom IDE profile. Visual Studio enables you to select either a language-specific or task-specific profile and then change that profile whenever you desire.

Configuration settings are managed through the Tools ⇒ Import and Export Settings menu option. This menu option opens a simple wizard, which first saves your current settings and then allows you to select an alternate set of settings. By default, Visual Studio ships with settings for Visual Basic, Web development, and C#, to name a few, but by exporting your settings you can create and share your own custom settings files.

The Visual Studio settings file is an XML file that enables you to capture all your Visual Studio configuration settings. This might sound trivial, but it is not. This feature enables the standardization of Visual Studio across different team members. The advantages of a team sharing settings go beyond just a common look and feel.

The Task List

The Task List is a great productivity tool that tracks not only errors but also pending changes and additions. It's also a good way for the Visual Studio environment to communicate information that the developer needs ...