Using the Toolbox
The Toolbox always displays two tabs, a General tab and a Clipboard Ring tab. As you open an editor or designer, other tabs and tools are added. You also can add custom tabs and tools to the Toolbox. For more information, see Managing Tabs and Items in the Toolbox.
You can select and drag items, text, and controls from the Toolbox onto forms, pages, and designers, and drag items from these sources back into the Toolbox for reuse later. For example, you can drag a Button control from the HTML tab onto a Web page, or select and drag a code fragment from an editor and store it on a Toolbox tab.
Here is a reference list of common Toolbox tasks and how to do them:
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Open the Toolbox | From the View menu, select Toolbox. |
| Make the Toolbox close automatically | Open the Toolbox. From the Window menu, select Autohide. |
| Make the Toolbox stay open | Open the Toolbox. In the Window menu, clear Autohide. |
| Move the Toolbox to a different location | Open the Toolbox. In the Window menu, clear Autohide, then select Floating. Drag the Toolbox to the desired location. |
| Conceal the Toolbox | In the Window menu, select Hide. (To reopen the Toolbox, select Toolbox from the View menu.) |
| Expand a Toolbox tab | Select the name of the desired tab in the Toolbox. |
| Expand Toolbox tabs one after another | Press CTRL+DOWN ARROW to expand the next Toolbox tab, or CTRL+UP ARROW to expand the previous tab. |
| Scroll through an expanded list of items on a Toolbox tab | Click the UP triangle at the top of the expanded list, or the DOWN triangle at the bottom of the list. |
| Insert a Toolbox item at the selected location on the active designer | Double-click the desired item on the expanded Toolbox tab. |
| Cycle through items that have been copied or pasted to the Clipboard Ring tab using the keyboard | In the active editor or designer, press CTRL+Shift+V repeatedly until the desired item from the Clipboard Ring tab appears. |
| Add a component to those displayed in the Toolbox | Choose Add/Remove Toolbox Items from the Tools menu. |
| Store a text or markup fragment in the Toolbox | Select the desired scrap of text or code in the editor and drag it onto the desired tab of the Toolbox. |
| Move an item from one Toolbox tab to another | Drag the item from the expanded Toolbox tab onto the name of another tab, or use Cut and Paste. Items that cannot be moved are copied instead. |
| Copy an item from one Toolbox tab to another | Press CTRL and drag the item from the expanded Toolbox tab onto the name of another tab, or use Copy and Paste. |
| Display all available Toolbox tabs, regardless of context | Select any Toolbox tab and choose Show All Tabs from its shortcut menu. |
| Remove an item from the Toolbox | Select the Toolbox item and choose Delete from the Edit menu. Certain default items, such as the Pointer, cannot be removed |
| Change the position of a tab in the Toolbox | Drag the Toolbox tab to the new location preferred, and release the mouse. |
| Change the position of an item on an expanded Toolbox tab | Drag the item to the new location preferred, and release the mouse. |
| Rename a Toolbox item | Select the Toolbox item and choose Rename Item from its shortcut menu. |
See Also
Toolbox | Customize Toolbox Dialog Box | Options that Affect Existing HTML, CSS, or XML Markup | How Policy Affects the Toolbox | Toolbox Object | ToolboxTab Object