Visual Studio Hacks

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Chapter 2, Master the Editor

#9 Master Regions

HACK

region strategy can make it easier to find and understand files, whereas a

poorly defined strategy can lead to regions being more of a hindrance than

benefit.

The Regions Add-in

To enclose a piece of existing code in a region, you need to find the top of

the code, type in the

#region statement, and then find the bottom of the

code and type in the closing

#endregion statement. While this is not all that

difficult, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to simply highlight a section of code

and click a button that adds that code to a region? That is where the Regions

Add-in comes into play. Using the Regions Add-in, you can select a piece of

code using the mouse or keyboard and then right-click and select Add to

New Region.

First, you will need to download and install the Region Add-in from http://

www.codeproject.com/dotnet/RegionsAddIn.asp. After you have downloaded

and installed the add-in, you will see two new items on your right-click

menu. These are shown in Figure 2-18. (These items will be visible only

when you have text selected.)

If you select a block of code and then click the Add to New Region item, you

will see the dialog shown in Figure 2-19.

After entering a name in the dialog box and clicking OK, the add-in will

wrap the selected code in a region using the name you entered.

You can also use the add-in to add code into an existing region. Simply ...