Visual Studio add-ins, extensions and tools

Update duplicate blocks of text in multiple files from Visual Studio 2012/2010 with Sync Block Edit extension

Sergey Vlasov — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 03:41:37 +0000

It is undesirable, but often necessary to have duplicate blocks of text in multiple files. For example, Google Analytics tracking code in html files or copyright notices in code files. When you need to update this text, sometime you can do it with a simple search and replace. But when you want to make sure no other text is changed or when you want to add or remove lines, multiline search and replace is necessary. Sync Block Edit hides all the complexity of writing multiline find and replace patterns from you.

If your text is already enclosed with distinct begin and end signature lines, just make your changes in one of the files, select the block and click the Sync Update Block button from the Sync Block Edit toolbar:

Update text with Sync Block Edit

In the Update Text dialog, begin and end lines are automatically filled. You select which files you want to update and click Update. In all files the text between the begin and end lines will be replaced with the selected text from the active document.

If your block in not yet enclosed, it is recommended to add distinct begin and end signature lines before modification. Select the block in one of the files and click the Sync Create Block button from the Sync Block Edit toolbar:

Create block with Sync Block Edit

In the Create Block dialog enter begin and end lines. Select which files you want to update and click Create. In all files this text block will be enclosed with the begin and end lines. After that you can update the block as described above.

You can download the free Sync Block Edit extension for Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012 from the Sync Block Edit homepage.

Fix File Encoding extension prevents Visual Studio 2012/2010 from adding BOM to UTF-8 files

Sergey Vlasov — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:05:57 +0000

When you edit a UTF-8 file in Visual Studio, it adds the byte order mark (BOM) sequence to the beginning of the file. You can select an encoding manually, but you need to do it each time you reopen the file.

Fix File Encoding automatically detects when a UTF-8 file is opened in Visual Studio and sets its encoding to UTF-8 without signature. If you don’t edit the file, it remains unmodified. If you edit the file, it will be saved without the BOM. You can configure which files to encode based on the file path and the file extension (by default, only .html files are protected from Visual Studio).

You can download the free Fix File Encoding extension for Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012 from the Fix File Encoding homepage.

Tabs Studio v3.0.3 released

Sergey Vlasov — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:04:46 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v3.0.3 adds detection for Custom Document Well. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

Tabs Studio v3.0.1 released

Sergey Vlasov — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:16:07 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v3.0.1 improves and simplifies tab coloring. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

Tabs Studio v3.0.0 released

Sergey Vlasov — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:52:13 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v3.0.0 adds support for Visual Studio 2012 color themes and the right preview tab position. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

Tabs Studio v2.8.2 released

Sergey Vlasov — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:38:08 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v2.8.2 adds support for Visual Studio 2012 RTM. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

Tabs Studio v2.8.0 released

Sergey Vlasov — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:41:05 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v2.8.0 adds support for Visual Studio 2012 RC. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

Workspace Reloader extension for Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 11

Sergey Vlasov — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:49:51 +0000

Workspace Reloader extension by Scott Hanselman preserves open documents in Visual Studio when a project is reloaded.

When a project in your current solution is changed, typically after an update from a source code repository, Visual Studio asks to reload the project:

Project modification outside the environment detected by Visual Studio

If you agree to reload the project, Visual Studio closes all open documents from this project. The Workspace Reloader extension reopens these documents as if nothing has happened.

The free Workspace Reloader extension supports Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 11. You can download it from Visual Studio Gallery. Source code is available on github. Read about making of this extension on Scott’s blog.

Tabs Studio v2.7.2 released

Sergey Vlasov — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:00:40 +0000

Tabs Studio is a Visual Studio and SSMS add-in empowering you to work comfortably with any number of open documents.

v2.7.2 adds support for Visual Studio 11 Beta and SQL Server 2012 Management Studio. See the full what’s new list.

Download the installer.

WoVS Quick Add Reference extension for Visual Studio 2010

Sergey Vlasov — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:05:37 +0000

Quick Add Reference extension by Clarius Consulting lets you quickly add a missing reference for a type in C# code. When you use a new type and Visual Studio 2010 asks are you missing an assembly reference, in the correction options popup menu you now have the item to add the reference:

Add reference menu item in Visual Studio 2010 correction options popup menu

Selecting the Add Reference menu item adds the reference and adds the necessary using statement:

PresentationCore assembly reference and using System.Windows statement added by the Quick Add Reference extension

To open the correction options popup menu in Visual Studio 2010 you can hover the mouse over the help button or press Ctrl + . (Ctrl and dot). The same add reference menu item is available in the Error List tool window for the assembly not referenced error:

Add reference menu item in the build error description context menu

The Quick Add Reference extension learns about types and corresponding assemblies as you add them using the standard Add Reference dialog. Once you’ve added an assembly manually, Quick Add Reference remembers it and in the future will offer you an option to add it via the popup menu.

The free Quick Add Reference extension supports only Visual Studio 2010 and C# language. You can download it from the Visual Studio Gallery.