5 Visual Studio Keyboard Tricks

Ctrl+.

You’ve got an error on line and see the little red bar that marks the SmartTag that provides the options for fixing the problem. You don’t have to fiddle with the mouse to display the dropdown list of options. You can just type Ctrl+. (You don’t even have to move your cursor back to the line in error).

Ctrl+Shift+Enter

You want to add a blank line after the line you’re on. You don’t have to go to the end of the line and hit the <Enter> key. Just leave your cursor where it is and use Ctrl+Shift+Enter (Ctrl+Enter adds a line above).

Ctrl+K, C

You want to comment a block of commented code. Select the block of text then type the comment chord: Ctrl+K, C

Ctrl+K, U

You want to uncomment a block of commented code. You don’t have to select the whole commented block. Just put your cursor somewhere in the commented block and type the uncomment chord: Ctrl+K, U

IntelliSense Filtering

You type an object name, type a period, type the first letter of the member you want and get an IntelliSense list with lots and lots of entries. You don’t have to type the whole name of the member you want. IntelliSense in Visual Studio 2010 recognizes camel-casing, so if you hold down the Shift key and type the capitalized letters in the member name you want, IntelliSense will give narrow the list down to that one.