Visual Studio Toolbox Shortcuts: Expand, Collapse, and Find
With the rise of ASP.NET MVC, the role of the visual designers that were so much a part of creating UIs have diminished and that's too bad. If you're using one of the UI development technologies that give you a Visual Designer with toolbox, here are three tips you might not know to make working with your toolbox easier. After clicking on the toolbox (or otherwise making it active), if you type
- An asterisk (*), you'll expand all of the sections
- A forward slash (/), you'll collapse all of the sections
- Any alphabetic characters, you'll start a search for widgets with matching names (Even if there isn't a search box at the top of the toolbox)
With the search option, once you find a matching widget, pressing the Tab key will move you to the next matching entry. If your toolbox doesn't have a search box at the top, you can see what you've typed in the status bar at the bottom of the toolbox.
Posted by Peter Vogel on 08/12/2016