Understanding Commands: Simple Commands
Keyboard: CTRL + ALT + A
Menu: View -> Other Windows -> Command Window
Command: View.CommandWindow
Versions: 2008,2010
Published: 8/8/2010
Code: vstipTool0067
Just about everything you do in Visual Studio comes with an associated command. But WHAT is a command? According to the MSDN documentation commands "allow direct interaction with the integrated development environment (IDE) from the keyboard. Many dialog boxes, windows, and menu commands within the IDE have a command-line equivalent that you can" use. In plain English, commands allow you to do stuff in Visual Studio. Let's take an example: Add Class.
First, let's examine the typical way you add a class. Normally, you would just go to Project -> Add Class:
Obviously, this command is used to add a new class to your project and shows the Add New Item dialog:
That's too much extra work for something I like to use all the time. I want to "search" to see if there is a command that is associated with this action. I'll go to Tools -> Options -> Keyboard:
I'll type a keyword in the "Show commands containing" area to narrow down the command list. In this case, the keywords "Add Class" are used in the menu item so I will use it here. Notice how I remove the spaces for the command:
As you can see there is an Project.AddClass command. It's common to find a command that follows the Menu structure and this command is no exception:
Also notice there are no shortcuts associated with the command. Why don't we add one? For this example, I'll use CTRL + M, CTRL + 7 as the shortcut key to be assigned:
For now I won't get into the nuances of assigning shortcut keys but you can get the details at vstipTool0063. Assuming the key was assigned correctly, we can click OK then press CTRL + M, CTRL + 7 to see the New Item dialog pop up:
It works! Now you understand the power of commands. They can be quite useful and, once you assign a shortcut key, you will see it in the menu as well:
