Professional Visual Studio® 2008

3.2. The Editor Space

Like most IDEs, Visual Studio 2008 has been built up around the central code-editing window. Over time it has evolved and is now much more than a simple text editor. While most developers will spend considerable time writing code in the editor space, there are an increasing number of designers for performing tasks such as building forms, adjusting project settings, and editing resources. Regardless of whether you are writing code or doing form design, you are going to spend a lot of your time within Visual Studio 2008 in the editor space. Because of this it is important for you to know how to tweak the layout so you can work more efficiently.

3.2.1. Fonts and Colors

Some of the first things that presenters change in Visual Studio are the fonts and colors used in the editor space, in order to make the code more readable. However, it shouldn't just be presenters who adjust these settings. Selecting fonts and colors that are easy for you to read and that aren't harsh on the eyes will make you more productive and enable you to code for longer without feeling fatigued. Figure 3-7 shows the Fonts and Colors node of the Options dialog, where you can make adjustments to the font, size, color, and styling of different display items. One thing to note about this node in the Options dialog is that it is very slow to load, so try to avoid accidentally clicking it.

Figure 3.7. Figure 3-7

In order to adjust the appearance of a particular text item within Visual Studio ...