Creating and Controlling Environment Windows
The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) is composed of numerous tool windows. A tool window is a window created by Visual Studio, or one that can be manipulated by Visual Studio automation. The Visual Studio automation model enables you to manipulate its windows and in many cases, their contents. For example, the Toolbox window is represented by the ToolBox object, as well as the ToolBoxTabs and ToolBoxItems collections. You can use its members to add and remove tabs and Toolbox items. You can also create your own tool windows to suit your custom content.
While some tool windows, such as Solution Explorer and the Class View tool window, do not have explicit automation features, you can still manipulate the windows themselves. Solution Explorer is a tool window in the Visual Studio IDE that displays a physical, file-based depiction of your solution and its projects and their project items. Like any other tool window in Visual Studio, you can control its physical parameters, such as size, location, and whether it is docked or free-floating. Class View is a tool window that displays the symbols defined, referenced, or called in the application you are developing. For information, see How to: Change Window Characteristics.
To learn more about |
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Changing the physical characteristics of a tool window, such as its height, width, and so forth. |
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Manipulating source code and text in the Code Editor. |
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Automating search and replace operations in the Code Editor. |
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Manipulating Solution Explorer and its contents. |
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Using the Visual Studio Code Model to discover code. |
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Manipulating the Output window and its contents. |
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Changing the settings in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu. |
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Manipulating the Toolbox and its contents. |
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Manipulating the Task List and its contents. |
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Manipulating the Command window and its contents. |
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Manipulating the Dynamic Help window and affecting attributes. |
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Manipulating the recording of macros from within an add-in. |
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Controlling tree views in tool windows by using the UIHierarchy object. |
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Creating and manipulating tool windows. |
See Also
Tasks
Walkthrough: Creating a Wizard
Concepts
Controlling Projects and Solutions