Sara Ford's Weblog
My adventures embracing open source on CodePlex and at Microsoft
Did you know… How to use the Watch Window to change a variable’s value
Just like all the other tips, this one will work with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio...
Author: saraford Date: 04/07/2005
Did you know… How to quickly Navigate Forward and Navigate Backward within code
Another one of those “how did I never see this before” and “now I can’t live...
Author: saraford Date: 04/06/2005
Did you know… How to bind keyboard shortcuts to commands
The Visual Studio shell is a big place. I should know, since I used Visual J++ everyday for a year...
Author: saraford Date: 04/05/2005
Did you know… Dragging and dropping text in the editor
There’s an option under Tools – Options – Text Editor – General to This blog...
Author: saraford Date: 04/04/2005
Did you know… How to do column selection
Did you know that Visual Studio has two different selection models? This blog post has moved to...
Author: saraford Date: 04/01/2005
Did you know… How to quickly set the editor background to black
You can quickly change the editor background to black by going to Tools Options Environment Fonts...
Author: saraford Date: 03/31/2005
Did you know… How to scroll through results using F8
Just completed a Find in Files or a Find Symbol and want to navigate quickly between the results? In...
Author: saraford Date: 03/30/2005
Did you know… How to use Full Screen Mode? (Shift+Alt+Enter)
Giving a presentation? Want to focus just on the editor (and any interesting tools windows) without...
Author: saraford Date: 03/29/2005
Use Ctrl-K Ctrl-C to comment selection and Ctrl-K Ctrl-U to uncomment selection
This tip will work for both Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005. I use this feature all...
Author: saraford Date: 03/28/2005
Did you know… How to Enable Word Wrap or Virtual Space
both Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005, you can enable either Word Wrap or Virtual...
Author: saraford Date: 03/24/2005
Did you know… Splitting Windows and Creating New Windows for documents
To split the current window, just go to Window – Split from the main menu (or use the splitter...
Author: saraford Date: 03/23/2005
Sara Appreciation Day v2.7
Last Friday, I turned 27, so I decided to enter my late-twenties the only way I knew how… by...
Author: saraford Date: 03/22/2005
Did you know… How to open something in the binary editor (using Open With)
In both Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005, there’s an Open With associated with the...
Author: saraford Date: 03/22/2005
Did you know… how to enable Visible White Space?
Another simple little feature, but very powerful, especially when you deal with white space as much...
Author: saraford Date: 03/21/2005
Did you know… The power of incremental searching
I didn’t know about incremental searching until someone showed me. This is a really powerful...
Author: saraford Date: 03/17/2005
Did you know… Use the Ctrl+D window to do Quick Find both Forward and Backward
As a follow up to yesterday’s post, the point of the Ctrl+D window is to do a quick find in the...
Author: saraford Date: 03/17/2005
Editor Tip of the Day
I’ve been thinking about doing an Editor tip of the day RSS feed for a while now. My goal is to see...
Author: saraford Date: 03/16/2005
Did you know… Use the Ctrl+D window to run Visual Studio commands
In both Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005, you can navigate to the find combo box (aka...
Author: saraford Date: 03/16/2005
What are Test Hooks?
Finally, the promised post. Types of Controls There are three types of controls you’ll discover when...
Author: saraford Date: 03/16/2005
Introducing our first VS Core Community PowerToys Release – VS Editor Zoom Control
A very big thank you to Henrik Stuart for writing this VS Editor Zoom control and updating it for...
Author: saraford Date: 02/14/2005
Temp Location for Visual Studio .NET 2003 Powertoys
Many people have contacted me about the Visual Studio Core Community Powertoys site missing...
Author: saraford Date: 02/09/2005
Happy Mardi Gras!!!
Happy Mardi Gras to everyone back home enjoying their 4-day weekend and to those of us far away from...
Author: saraford Date: 02/08/2005
Automation Testing versus Manual Testing Guidelines
I met with my team’s automation experts a few weeks back to get their input on when to automate and...
Author: saraford Date: 02/07/2005
Introducing the VS Core Community Powertoys Pilot Program – Come build PowerToys with us
For many years, we’ve been writing helpful little tools for Visual Studio called PowerToys. The...
Author: saraford Date: 02/07/2005
Channel 9 videos of me talking about our Test Case Management System (Maddog) and analyzing failures in a run
By popular demand, I asked Josh about doing a live video segment of Maddog to bring to live the...
Author: saraford Date: 02/07/2005
Cool new little Editor feature in the Dec CTP – Edit.PasteParameterTip
It’s really the simple things in life. Ever had a long list of parameters for a method and didn’t...
Author: saraford Date: 01/21/2005
Looking for a good home for my 2 cockatiels
Snowflake and Sunshine went to a great home last night. They were picked up by someone who runs a...
Author: saraford Date: 01/20/2005
Return of the strange Google hits
It’s been a while since I looked for strange and odd Google hits in my referrers list. I only looked...
Author: saraford Date: 01/18/2005
What software testing topics do you want to hear more about?
Do you have any software testing topics you want to hear more about? Here are a few suggestions that...
Author: saraford Date: 01/17/2005
I Love VS Core Channel 9 Videos
Josh went around and video’ed a bunch of us at work in our offices. It has been an interesting...
Author: saraford Date: 01/13/2005
Visual Studio Visible Docking Targets Nightly Test Case
Description If you are unfamiliar with Tool Window Docking or Dock Targets, check out my post about...
Author: saraford Date: 01/13/2005
Visual Studio File Tab Channel Nightly Test Case
Description If you are unfamiliar with the File Tab Channel, check out my post about it at New...
Author: saraford Date: 01/13/2005
Visual Studio IDE Navigator Nightly Test Case
Description If you are unfamiliar with the IDE Navigator, check out my post about it at New Window...
Author: saraford Date: 01/13/2005
Posting our Visual Studio Core Nightly test cases for review on the blogsphere
A couple of months ago, I posted an entry called What is a Nighlty Test Case? I mentioned how I’ve...
Author: saraford Date: 01/13/2005
Passed my Karate Exam
Just got back the results tonight from my 2nd Kyu exam. The only comments were about my back fist...
Author: saraford Date: 01/12/2005
My New Year’s Resolutions
S
Author: saraford Date: 01/12/2005
Why it is better to log failure by default in a test case rather than to log pass by default – Part 2
As promised, I said I would ask some of the people from my team after they returned from vacation...
Author: saraford Date: 01/12/2005
Test Case Best Practice: It’s better to LogPass than to LogFailure
In our test case world, we assume a test case fails, unless we log pass. We changed our way of...
Author: saraford Date: 12/21/2004
Back to the New Orleans French Quarter and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
This Thanksgiving, I went home to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the first time in three years...
Author: saraford Date: 12/21/2004
Got an account at Digital Blasphemy
DigitalBlasphemy.com is the best website I’ve seen for wallpaper. While working on webtop in...
Author: saraford Date: 12/21/2004
What’s wrong with this test case code? - Identifying False Positives Part 2 – The Answer
The problem is with this line: ‘ retval is NULL if API failed to set focus on requested window If...
Author: saraford Date: 12/15/2004
What’s wrong with this test case code? - Identifying False Positives Part 2
Really easy one tonight, but something ever tester working with APIs should be aware of. Even if you...
Author: saraford Date: 12/15/2004
What's Wrong with this Test Case Code - the Collection
This is my first attempt at a series of “what’s wrong with this test case code” entries. Let me know...
Author: saraford Date: 12/15/2004
What’s wrong with this test case code? – Identifying False Positives
This is my first attempt at a series of “what’s wrong with this test case code” entries. Let me know...
Author: saraford Date: 12/14/2004
Bumper Stickers for Software Testers
Here’s a collection of bumper stickers for testers written by our own Harry Robinson. My addition to...
Author: saraford Date: 12/13/2004
First Karate Rank test in 10 years tomorrow night
Update 12/13/2004: I won’t know whether i passed or not for another month. The head...
Author: saraford Date: 12/07/2004
What to do when TreeViews or ListViews don’t show selection or inactive selection
While working on a community app project (you’ll hear more on this later), I needed help setting the...
Author: saraford Date: 11/30/2004
Disabling the IDE Navigator (Ctrl-Tab Dialog)
I’ve had a few questions come back to me about disabling the IDE Navigator, aka the Ctrl-Tab Dialog....
Author: saraford Date: 11/15/2004