Visual Studio Tip: Open XAML in code only mode

A major annoyance of mine after installing a new instance of Visual Studio is when I open a XAML document for the first time. By default, Visual Studio opens a XAML document in Preview mode (the design on the top and the code view on the bottom).  As you start adding more and more elements to XAML, Visual Studio will render the XAML in the design view, even going as far as playing video back if you have a MediaElement defined.

The option to turn this off is buried in the Options.  The below figures show how to change the default behavior.

First click Tools > Options.

Then navigate to Text Editor > XAML > Miscellaneous.  Check the box that says Always open document in full XAML view.  If you don’t see Text Editor in the options menu, check the box Show all settings in the bottom left of the Options window.

Over the past year Corey was a lead developer on the NBCOlympics.com Silverlight 2 video player, he is currently finishing up a book with PeachPit Press - Microsoft Expression Blend a Visual Quickstart Guide (ISBN 0-321-41223-0), and he maintains a Silverlight blog “Silverlight made Simple”. Other Silverilght project he has worked on are HSN.tv with Silverlight 1.0 and the Blockbuster Stream application using Silverlight 2. Corey is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 9 posts at DZone.