Visual Studio is an extremely large program. You are very unlikely to use even half the features of the program during your career. It is a tool that is very easy to learn and very difficult to master. Here are 5 tips that will help you move in the right direction.
- ALT + B + U
The ALT + B + U keyboard shortcut will build the current unit (project). A real time saver compared to build solution and you don’t have to move from your place in the code editor. - ALT + Drag
This little trick is a true time saver. If you hold down the ALT key and click and then drag up or down, you select the rectangle you drag. Then, you can start typing and the text will be inserted into every line you have selected. Here is a bonus tip but not for Visual Studio. In Code, hold down the ALT key and click in random locations in your document and this same behavior occurs. You can even do multiple locations on the same line. Amazing. - Track Active Item in Solution Explorer
I can no longer function without this one. I have been using it since VS 2010, I believe. From the menu, Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > General. If you turn the Track Active Item in Solution Explorer option on, when you change documents in the editor, it will automatically move you to the correct location in Solution Explorer. - Tab Management
Tabs have their own context menus. Right clicking a tab will allow you to perform several special actions including Close All Documents, Close All But This, New Horizontal Tab Group, and New Vertical Tab Group. No more closing 40 tabs one by one. - Paste Special
I only recently learned about this little trick. If you copy a JSON or XML structure, you can paste it as a class!!! In the menu, Edit > Paste Special > Past JSON as Classes / Paste XML as Classes.
Well, that is a small list of some of my favorites. What are yours?