"Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

If you're using VS 2005 I highly recommend downloading and installing the nice "Cool Commands" addin, which you can learn about and download here. It adds some really handy right click menus to VS including (my favorites):
  • Command Prompt here
  • Copy/Paste references between projects
  • Demo Font
  • Font resizing using the mouse scroll wheel
  • Right clicking in a code file and choosing "build [current project name]"
And these are just features I liked 5 minutes after installation.
 
One thing Missing?
I wish it also had something which I have no idea how they missed in VS: Right clicking in a code file and saying "Find this file/project in the solution explorer".  Any ideas where I can install something like that?
Published Sunday, April 02, 2006 12:01 PM by RoyOsherove
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Comments

Sunday, April 02, 2006 6:26 AM by Omer van Kloeten

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

"Track active item in solution explorer" in Tools->Options->Environment->Projects and Solutions.
I use it all the time.
Sunday, April 02, 2006 7:03 AM by Willy

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Hi Roy, I think what you want for "Find this file/project in the solution explorer" can be easily get by using the Track Active Item in Solution Explorer.
Sunday, April 02, 2006 7:06 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Willy, Omer,
Thanks, but that's not good enough. I have tracking turned on but it's quite buggy. Sometimes it hghlights theitem, but if you have really deep nesting hierarchies in the solution explorer, it just gives up and you're lost again..
:(

I'd be happy with even a simply macro that uses InputBox top search a project byname..
Sunday, April 02, 2006 7:33 AM by Ilan Assayag

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Great add-in indeed!
BTW - it also has exactly the "Locate in Solution Explorer" feature you requested. Just right-click on the file's tab header (name).
Sunday, April 02, 2006 9:27 AM by Jim Bolla

# I've got an idea for a VS.NET addin

I'd like to make a VS.NET addin that allows CTRL+scrollwheel font resizing like in a web browser. Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to hook into mouse events. Any pointers? (No pun intended)
Sunday, April 02, 2006 9:54 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Jim:
Cool-Commands has that ability. Maybe the source code is available fot that.

Ilan: Cool,1 I didn't notice that!
Sadly, it still does not work. I guess my project nesting is just too complicated for some reason..
Sunday, April 02, 2006 10:40 AM by Brian Schmitt

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

If you are looking for an addin that you can type into then take a look at DPack its a great addin, it has a Solution Browser that you might find useful!
http://www.usysware.com/dpack/
Monday, April 03, 2006 3:00 AM by Ruurd Boeke

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

I actually created a macro to quickly switch on the 'track active item in solution explorer' and then switch it off again. I don't like using vs.net with it on all the time, but using the macro it let's me quickly find the file I'm working on.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:42 AM by Pablito

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Great tool, btw the VS has the ability to find the file in the solution explorer it's just disabled by default: tools->options->Projects and solutions->check track active item in the solution explorer
Saturday, April 08, 2006 8:02 PM by Omer van Kloeten

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

"Right clicking in a code file and choosing "build [current project name]""

It's built into VS. Just Press Alt+B+U...
Monday, April 10, 2006 10:17 AM by Rooc

# re: "Cool Commands" for VS 2005 is a free and useful little Add-in!

Maybe you can expand on this macro, same idea different search area:

Sub GoogleSearch()
Dim strUrl As String
Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection()

' If user didn't select text,
' do nothing
If selection.Text <> "" Then
' Google Search!
strUrl = "www.google.com/search?q=" + selection.Text
' Navigate it!
DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.URL", strUrl)

End If
End Sub

After that you can assign a keyboard shortcut to this macro.

(note on the side: I once made this for a colleague that kept asking annoying questions ;) )