A Few Editor Tips and Tricks I Learned from the Full Test Pass

  • Article

I’m getting close to finishing all of our manual test cases for our Full Test Pass, which has helped me tremendously to learn about my new feature area. Here is my list of tips and tricks that I’ve collected over the past couple of weeks:

Tip #1 – Code Drag and Drop

Make sure the Tools – Options – Text Editor – General – Drag and drop text editing checkbox is checked.

Suppose you’re working in a class library and you have two class files opened. You realize, hey, I want to move/copy this class or method to another code file. Or you just want to move/copy certain parts of the code to another location within the same file.

How To Use:

  1. Select the code snippet
  2. Drag to new location
  3. (Press Ctrl for copy)

Tip #2 – Block selection

Did you know you can use block selection?

How To Use:

  1. Press and hold Alt while selecting code via the mouse

Tip #3 – View Visible White Space

Did you know you can view the visible white space?

How To Use:

  1. Go to Edit – Advanced – View White Space

Tip #4 – View the Undo and Redo command stacks on the toolbar

Make sure you have the Text Editor toolbar selected. By default this toolbar should appear whenever you have a file opened in the editor.

How To Use:

  1. Drop down the Undo or Redo button on the toolbar
  2. Select as how far back you want to unwind or rewind the stack

Tip #5 – Tracking Changes

Make sure you have Tools – Options – General – Selection Margin checkbox checked and Tools – Options – General – Track Changes checkbox checked to view Track Changes.

Yellow – you’ve edited these lines since your last save

Green – the lines you’ve edited before your last save. Yellow becomes Green upon saving. Save again and Green disappears.

Tip #6 – Printing with different fonts and colors

Have you ever wanted to print out code file with a larger font or perhaps different colors than your text editor fonts and colors?

How To Use:

  1. Open Tools – Options – Fonts and Colors
  2. Under Show settings for:, select Printer
  3. Apply changes (like increase font size or change colors)

A good way to preview your changes is to make the modifications to your Text Editor settings, then select the Printer settings. The Use Default button changes to Use. Press Use and select “Use Text Editor”.