Visual Web Developer Settings

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Visual Web Developer settings are designed to optimize the user experience and to maximize the productivity of Web developers. Visual Web Developer settings are a part of the Settings in Visual Studio feature, a feature that enables you to customize and save your Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) settings.

You can also port or reload your IDE settings on other computers. For more information, see How to: Share Settings Between Computers or Visual Studio Versions.

The dialog boxes and menu commands described below are the default settings for Visual Web Developer. To customize your settings, click Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information about customizing settings, see Visual Studio Settings.

Windows and Views

Feature

Displayed by default?

Notes

Call Stack

Yes, when debugging starts.

Class View

No

Command Window

No

Server Explorer/Database Explorer

Yes

In the Visual Studio Express products, this window is named Database Explorer. In all other Visual Studio products, this window is named Server Explorer.

Design View

No

Source View is the default view for the IDE when you edit a Web page. You can customize the IDE so that Design View is the default. For more information, see General, Environment, Options Dialog Box

Document Outline Window

No

Dynamic Help

Yes

For information about how to customize dynamic help, see How to: Customize Dynamic Help.

Error List Window

Yes

The Error List Window is initially hidden.

Immediate Window

Yes, when debugging starts.

Object Browser

No

Output Window

Yes, when debugging starts.

Properties Window

Yes

In an open Web project, the Properties Window shows information for the currently selected item.

Solution Explorer

Yes

In an open Web project, Solution Explorer shows the items in the project. Nest related files is selected by default.

Source View

Yes

In an open Web project, pages are opened in Source View by default. You can customize your settings to use Design View as the default view. For more information, see General, Environment, Options Dialog Box.

Start Page

Yes

The Start Page is the default page when no Web project is loaded in the IDE. The Start Page displays articles from the RSS Feed for MSDN: Visual Web Developer 2005 Edition. The RSS feed can be set to a specified feed. For more information about how to customize the behavior of the start page, see Customizing the Start Page.

Task List (Visual Studio)

No

Toolbox

Yes

When you open Visual Web Developer as an empty IDE, the Toolbox is empty. In an open Web project, the Toolbox displays components in alphabetical order.

Integrated Development Environment Web Browser

No

Immediate Window

Yes, when debugging starts.

The Locals and Watch windows are shown.

In addition, the following elements have certain behaviors enabled when you use the Visual Web Developer default settings.

Keyboard

Feature

Behavior

Shortcut Keys

General Development Settings Default Shortcut Keys are in effect.

Miscellaneous IDE Elements

Feature

Behavior

Designer settings

The default view is the Source View, not the Design View.

Main menus, shortcut menus, toolbars, commands

The File menu is optimized for creating and opening Web sites. The New Web Site and Open Web Site commands are accessible directly from the File menu.

The Document Outline command is accessible directly on the View menu rather than through the Other Windows submenu. There are several window choices available in Visual Studio 2005 that are not in Visual Web Developer.

Window management and layouts

Default layout of windows:

Default layout of debugger windows:

See Also

Tasks

How to: Change Select Settings

How to: Specify Settings for a Team

Reference

Import and Export Settings, Environment, Options Dialog Box