Top 13 Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

My friends in college always made fun of my keyboard obsession. At the time, I knew all the Windows 98 specific shortcut keys and often had no need for the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts still rule in my book. It is amazing that you can get around without using a mouse at all. Master the following Visual Studio shortcuts and your colleagues might stare at you with amazement.

1. F5: Start your project in debug mode
   
   
   
2. F7 & Shift-F7: Show the code windows & Show the designer window
   
   
   
3. Alt-Enter: Show the properties panel for a selected object (this is general Windows shortcut that can be used on files and directories)
   
   
   
4. F6 / Shift-F6 / Ctrl-Shift-B: Build solution / Build project / Build solution
   
    
   
5. Shift-Alt-C: Add a new class to your project
   
    
   
6. Ctrl-K + Ctrl-C: Comment a selected block of code
   
   
   
7. Ctrl-K + Ctrl-U: Un-comment a selected block of code
   
   
   
8. Ctrl-M + Ctrl-O / Ctrl-M + Ctrl-P: Collapse all code to definitions / Expand all code (stop collapsing)
   
   
   
9. Ctrl-M + Ctrl+M: Expend or collapse a selected code fragment. The code collapsed depends on where the cursor is located
   
   
   
10. Ctrl-B + Ctrl-T: Toggle code bookmark
    
    
    
11. Ctrl-Alt-P: Attach the debugger to a process. This is insanely useful for debugging ASP.NET web sites without having to start the project in debug mode
    
    
    
12. Ctrl-Alt-L: Show the solution explorer
    
     
    
13. Ctrl-Shift-A / Alt-Shift-A: Add a new item to your project / add an existing item to your project
    
    
    

The above list is my top 13. Did I miss any essential ones? What are yours?

Bonus:

The following work in Visual Studio just like they do in most other Windows application.

Ctrl-N: Add a new file

Ctrl-S: Save file

Ctrl-Z / Ctrl-Y: Undo typing / Redo typing

Ctrl-F: Bring up the "Find" dialog

Ctrl-H: Bring up the "Replace" dialog

Ctrl-Tab: Scroll forward through open windows

Ctrl-Shift-Tab: Scroll backwards through open windows

I was born in Bulgaria. My immediate family and I relocated to Syracuse, NY in 1995. I completed high school in Syracuse, and then continued my education at Alfred University. My major at Alfred University was Computer Science. I also obtained a minor in Management Information Systems (MIS) to bridge the gap between technology and the business world. One of my future goals is to extend that bridge by obtaining a Master's degree in Business Administration. Boyan is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 26 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website.