Get to the Right Window Quickly in Visual Studio
When I have lots of documents open in Visual Studio, I find it difficult to scan the tabs to find the document I want (I recognize that this may not be a problem for everyone). I often find myself double-clicking on files in Solution Explorer to pop it to the front of the tabs, even though I know the file is already open -- somewhere.
Or, I used to. Lately, I've added a new key stroke combination to my limited repertoire: Ctrl_Alt_Down Arrow causes the list of open files in the upper right corner of the editor window to pop open all by itself. That list is searchable, which means that if you start typing your file name, the focus shifts to the first file with a name that matches what you've typed so far. Since I (usually) know my file's name, I can press Ctrl_Alt_Down, type as much of my file name as necessary to highlight it in the list, and hit the enter key to open the file in a tab.
By the way: Once a tab is open, you can close it with Ctrl_F4.
Posted by Peter Vogel on 08/11/2011