Accessibility Tips and Tricks
Visual Studio includes built-in accessibility features so you can easily work from the keyboard and use screen readers or other assistive technology devices. The topic includes some suggestions for optimizing Visual Studio for accessibility as well as some useful shortcut key combinations.
Note
The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.
Tips for Making Visual Studio More Accessible
**Customize the IDE **You to can save your window layout, keyboard mapping scheme, and other preferences for use on your current machine and on other machines. For more information, see How to: Share Settings Between Computers or Visual Studio Versions and Visual Studio Settings.
Apply accessibility settings Visual Studio includes a sample macro that can be applied to the product to make the integrated development environment (IDE) more accessible. This macro includes optimizations for working with screen readers. For more information, see Macros Samples.
Common Windows Shortcut Key Combinations
You can use many of the standard Windows shortcut key combinations to perform tasks within Visual Studio. Some of these shortcut key combinations include:
Description |
Key Combination |
|---|---|
Switch High Contrast on and off |
Left ALT + Left SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN |
Select or clear the check box option in a dialog box |
SPACEBAR |
Display the properties of the selected item. For example, puts focus in the Properties Window if a form is selected or Opens the Property Page dialog box if a project is selected. |
ALT+ENTER |
Display the items in the active list, such as a drop-down list, in a dialog box |
ALT + DOWN ARROW |
Display items in an active drop-down list in a grid |
SHIFT + ALT + DOWN ARROW |
Hidden Visual Studio Shortcut Key Combinations
Some features have shortcut keys available that do not appear in the Options dialog box on the Environment\Keyboard pane. These shortcut key combinations include the following:
Feature |
Description |
Key Combination |
|---|---|---|
Toolbox window |
Move among Toolbox tabs |
CTRL + UPARROW and CTRL + DOWNARROW |
Toolbox window |
Add a control from the Toolbox to a form or designer |
ENTER |
Keyboard, Environment, Options dialog box |
Delete a key combination entered in the Press shortcut keys option |
BACKSPACE |
All tool windows |
Select the first button on the toolbar of the window |
SHIFT + ALT |
IDE toolbars |
Select the first button on the Standard toolbar |
ALT, CTRL + TAB Note Press CTRL + TAB again to select the first button on the next IDE toolbar. |