.NET Tips and Tricks

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Multiple Solution Explorers

If you've right-clicked on a project in Solution Explorer, you've probably noticed (but haven't used) the New Solution Explorer View choice. Clicking on that choice with a project selected in Solution Explorer opens a new Solution Explorer view that displays just that project. Initially, the new, dedicated view is free-floating but you can dock it anywhere you want, including docking it as a tab beside your "full" Solution Explorer view.

This is a great alternative to scrolling up and down between two projects in a solution: Once you've opened a view dedicated to a project and docked it, you can just click on the tab that displays the project with which you want to work.

There are two disappointments: You can't name the tab (so you end up with multiple tabs called "Solution Explorer"); Visual Studio doesn't remember your dedicated views from one editing session to another (it also drops any dedicated views if, for example, you add a new project to the solution).

You can actually open a new Solution Explorer view dedicated to almost any item in Solution Explorer, but I've only ever found it useful for projects.

Posted by Peter Vogel on 09/21/2015


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