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How to: Manage editor modes

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

You can display the Visual Studio code editor in various display modes.

Note

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in this article depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, for example to General or Visual C++ settings, choose Tools > Import and Export Settings, and then choose Reset all settings.

Enable full screen mode

You can choose to hide all tool windows and view only document windows by enabling Full Screen mode.

  • Press Alt+Shift+Enter to enter or exit Full Screen mode.

    -- or --

  • Issue the command View.Fullscreen in the Command window.

Enable virtual space mode

In Virtual Space mode, spaces are inserted at the end of each line of code. Select this option to position comments at a consistent point next to your code.

  1. Select Options from the Tools menu.

  2. Expand the Text Editor folder, and choose All Languages to set this option globally, or choose a specific language folder. For example, to turn on line numbers only in Visual Basic, choose the Basic > Text Editor node.

  3. Select General options, and under Settings, select Enable Virtual Space.

    Note

    Virtual Space is enabled in Column Selection mode. When Virtual Space mode is not enabled, the insertion point moves from the end of one line directly to the first character of the next.

See also