Visual Studio Hacks

Master the Clipboard #6

Chapter 2, Master the Editor

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HACK

first document, then go to the second document and, using the clipboard

ring, paste all of those selections. The clipboard ring also comes in handy

when you have two or more separate things that you need to paste multiple

times; using the clipboard ring, you can switch back and forth between these

items easily.

You can also view the current contents of the clipboard ring by selecting the

Clipboard Ring tab in the Toolbox dialog. This tab, shown in Figure 2-1,

displays all of the selections currently living in the clipboard ring and allows

you to drag the selections to paste them into your document.

While the Clipboard Ring tab is a good way to get a better understanding

of the clipboard ring, it is not as efficient as the shortcut keys. Visual Stu-

dio .NET 2003 users will find that the Clipboard Ring tab is absent in

Visual Studio 2005, so it is best to use the shortcut keys instead of the

Toolbox tab.

Line-Based Cut and Paste

The clipboard ring is not the only copy and paste feature in Visual Studio; a

number of shortcut keys allow you to copy and paste code even faster.

Most applications rely on you selecting which text you want to cut, copy, or

delete. Visual Studio makes the very simple assumption that if you have not

selected any text that you want to cut, copy, or delete, the editing action will

be performed on the entire current line ...