Feedback to the user
Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual 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
In the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE), visual feedback regarding available functionality is based on the user's current selection and global selection context. The following table lists the functionality that is available in different selection contexts.
| Selection context | Available functionality |
|---|---|
| IDE | Global |
| Current product set | Product specific |
| Active hierarchy | Hierarchy type specific |
| Active hierarchy item | Hierarchy item type specific |
| Active document | Document type specific |
| Topmost multiple-document interface (MDI) window | Window type specific |
| Current selection context | Selection context specific |
If you only surface the functionality users need and continually provide consistent selection and environment context feedback, you reduce the complexity in the IDE. The following rules apply whenever a window is opened in the IDE:
If the window changes its selection context, selection feedback is clearly indicated in the window, and the Dynamic Help window, if shown, is updated to reflect the current context.
If the window changes global selection context, all context-specific menus, the active hierarchy window, and the application title bar are updated to reflect the current context.
The window should surface properties for the current selection in the Properties window and optionally, if shown, the Property Pages dialog box.
If the window does not surface properties or change global selection context, selection feedback should not remain in the window when it is no longer the active window in the IDE.
All document-specific tool windows should continually reflect the active document.
Menus, toolbars, and the application title bar should reflect the topmost multiple-document interface (MDI) client window.
For example, when the HTML view of a Web Form inside a Visual Basic Web Application project is opened and the user selects a
<td>tag, feedback is provided in the following manner:Selection is indicated in the active window and reflected in the Properties window.
The document-specific Toolbox is updated to reflect the active document.
The Editor toolbar and Table menu are displayed and the title bar updates to reflect the Web Form window.
The active hierarchy window, which is typically Solution Explorer, and its title bar update to reflect the current context and the context-sensitive Project menu commands now apply to the active Web Application project.