Working with Tool Windows

Working with Tool Windows

 

Before you can do anything with a specific tool window, you need to be able to make it visible. Some are shown by default, such as the Properties and Toolbox windows, whereas others, such as the Immediate window, are shown in certain contexts (the Immediate window is shown while you’re debugging but not at design time in all default configurations).

The selections of windows you can choose to display are all found in the View menu. The most commonly used windows, Properties window and the Solution Explorer and Server  Explorer, are accessible directly from the View menu, as well as their keyboard shortcuts. However, hidden away in the View?Other Windows submenu is an even larger selection of windows to add to your IDE configuration.

Each of these menu items acts as a show command only—to close a particular window, you need to use the Close button on the window itself. If you select the menu item corresponding to a window that is hidden, it will be popped open as if you had hovered the mouse cursor over it.

Every window has a default location in which it is shown. For example, the Bookmarks window will appear docked to the bottom of the IDE, while the Macro Explorer window shares the same space as the Solution Explorer. However, you can position them however you like, as you’ll see in the next section of this chapter.

The following table lists the available tool windows, their associated access shortcut, and what feature of Visual Studio 2005 they handle:

Window	Menu	Keyboard Shortcut	Function
Server Explorer	View	Ctrl+Alt+S	Provides access to Windows Server components such as SQL Server databases, event logs, and message queues.
Solution Explorer	View	Ctrl+Alt+L	Displayed by default, the Solution Explorer enables you to view and modify your solution structure.
Properties Window	View	F4	Rather than set properties in code,you can change many aspects of a control, form, or component through this window.
Toolbox	View	Ctrl+Alt+X	Provides direct access to the components currently available for use in your form design.
Class View	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Shift+C	Enables you to view your application in a hierarchy of classes, rather than the  normal file structure view.
Error List	View	Ctrl+W, Ctrl+E	All errors can be viewed in this list, with each entry providing a shortcut link to the problematic code
Bookmark	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+W, K	All bookmarks in your code can be viewed in this summary list. This window enables you to name each bookmark so you can more easily find it.
Code Definition	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+\, Ctrl+D	Used for both C# and C++ application projects, this window is useful for viewing the file associated with a selected symbol or definition.
Command	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Alt+A	You can execute commands and command aliases directly from within the Command window.
Document Outline	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Alt+T	Document Outline is a special window that shows you graphically how the current document or file is structured.
Object Test Bench	View?Other Windows	None	This is the main window for the object test bench—a tool for testing the various  characteristics of your classes.
Output	View?Other Windows Debug? Windows	Ctrl+Alt+O	This is the main window for run  time and debug generated output.
Breakpoints	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Alt+B	Presents a list of breakpoints currently inserted into the active project.
Resource View	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Shift+E	Provides an alternative way of viewing the resource files associated with your solution.
Task List	View?Other Windows	Ctrl+Alt+K	This window contains a list of both Windows automatically generated and manually created tasks that you can use to track your development progress.
Macro Explorer	View?Other Windows	Alt+F8	Macros, a way of automating series Windows of functions you use often,
Call Browser	View?Other Windows	None	The Immediate window can be used to debug and execute commands directly, enabling you to modify contents of variables at runtime, as well as examine objects and the effects of various commands even during design time.

Shashi Ray