Datasheet

Enabling and Disabling Toolbars

You disable and enable existing toolbars by right-clicking any existing toolbar or the menu bar and then

selecting the appropriate item from the list. Once the toolbar is displayed, you can use its drag grip at

the left of the toolbar to drag it to a new location. You can drag the toolbars to any location in the IDE,

including to the left and right sides of the screen where they’ll dock as vertical bars. You can also create

them as floating toolbars and place them anywhere on the screen.

Editing Existing Toolbars

If you feel that an existing toolbar is missing an important button or that it contains buttons you rarely

use, you can customize the buttons on the toolbar. To do this, right-click any toolbar or the menu bar and

choose Customize. Next, make sure the toolbar you want to tweak is enabled by placing a check mark in

front of it. Then switch to the Commands tab, choose a category from the list on the left, and then locate

the command in the Command list at the right. You can now drag the command from the Customize

window onto the toolbar.

Removing a button from a toolbar is even easier. With the Customize window still open, right-click the

button and choose Delete.

While you’re in the Customize dialog box, you may want to enable the Show Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips

setting on the Toolbars tab. This way, the toolbars for the button show the associated keyboard shortcut so

it’s more likely you’ll memorize and use them. Shortcut keys are often easier to use than their toolbar but-

ton or menu counterparts.

Creating Your Own Toolbars

Creating your own toolbar is useful if you want to group some functions that you frequently use. To cre-

ate a new toolbar, open the customize window as explained in the previous section. Click the New but-

ton and type a name for the toolbar. When you click OK, the new toolbar is displayed on the screen. You

can now start dragging commands to it the same way as when you’re modifying the existing toolbars.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

Another setting many developers like to change is keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are a good

way to save time because they allow you to perform a task with a simple keyboard command instead of

reaching for the mouse and selecting the appropriate item from the menu. To change the keyboard short-

cuts, open the Customize dialog box again by right-clicking a toolbar or choosing it from the Tools menu.

Next, click the Keyboard button. Locate the command for which you want to change the shortcut in the list

with commands. Since this list contains many items, you can filter the list by typing a few letters from the

command. For example, typing print in the Show commands containing field gives you a list of all print-

related commands.

Next, in the Press shortcut keys field, type a new shortcut. VWD allows you to enter a double shortcut

key for a single command. For example, you can bind the command Close All Documents to the com-

mand Ctrl+K, Ctrl+O. To perform this command, you need to press both key combinations in rapid

succession. Although a double shortcut key may seem like overkill, it greatly increases the number of

available shortcut keys.

Chapter 1: Getting Started with ASP.NET 3.5

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