Visual Studio Hacks

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Chapter 4, Customizing Visual Studio

#24 Create Your Own Shortcuts

HACK

Visual Studio works off the idea of commands. Although this is a fairly com-

mon pattern, with Visual Studio you see it much more, since you can create

shortcuts for various commands and can also see commands when using the

command window

[Hack #46].

Visual Studio includes hundreds of different commands. A small portion of

these commands already have shortcut keys, but through the Options screen

(Tools

➝ Options), you can add a shortcut for any of these commands. You

can also remove shortcuts that you never use, freeing up more key combina-

tions for shortcuts you might use more often.

Adding a Custom Keystroke

In this example, you will create a shortcut for the Build.RebuildSolution

command, which does not normally have a shortcut assigned to it. The first

thing you need to do is go to Tools

➝ Options and select the Keyboard item

under the Environment folder. This brings up the interface (Figure 4-1) you

will use to edit and create shortcuts.

Visual Studio does not allow you to make changes to the default keyboard

mappings. You need to first create a copy of the default keyboard mappings

for yourself. Start with whatever keyboard mapping you are currently using,

then click the Save As button. This will prompt you to name your new

scheme. After you create a name, Visual Studio will save the scheme and set

it as your selected scheme. ...