Datasheet

A Tour of the IDE
VWD is by far the most extensive and feature-rich integrated development environment (IDE) for building
ASP.NET web pages. The abbreviation IDE refers to the way all the separate tools you need to build
complex web applications are integrated in a single environment. Instead of writing code in a text edi-
tor, compiling code at the command line, writing HTML and CSS in a separate application, and manag-
ing your database in yet another, VWD allows you to perform all of these tasks, and more, from the
same environment. Besides the efficiency this brings because you don’t have to constantly switch
tools, this also makes it much easier to learn new areas of VWD, as many of the built-in tools work
in the same way.
The Main Development Area
To get familiar with the many tools that are packed in VWD’s interface, take a look at Figure 1-8. It shows
the same screen you got after you created your first web site in VWD, but now it highlights some of the
most important screen elements. If you had a previous version of Visual Studio installed, your screen may
look different, as Visual Studio 2008 is able to import settings from older versions.
Figure 1-8
Main
Menu
Toolbox
Properties
Grid
Document
Window
Toolbar
Area
Solution
Explorer
Database
Explorer
15
Chapter 1: Getting Started with ASP.NET 3.5
87593c01.qxd:WroxPro 1/25/08 9:05 AM Page 15