Having spent way too much non-stop time on the computer recently, I've had a spot of bother with RSI. So given the choice between not using the computer at all and finding a way round the problem, finding a way was the only realistic choice!
One thing I decided to do was use shortcut keys much more than I had been doing. I sometimes think that mouse is permanently attached to my right hand . I came across a handy guide to the Visual Studio shortcut keys, some of which I already knew (but didn't use often enough, obviously) and some that looked very useful that I hadn't known about.
So I thought I'd share My Top Tips for Shortcuts with you in case you find them useful .... preferably before you get finger cramp through overuse of the mouse!
Navigating round the Code Page is something we do a lot of, and any help here would be good. So,
CTRL plus The Up Arrow and
CTRL plus the Down Arrow
can be used to jump to the previous and next methods respectively in the code window . (Obviously you have to have the cursor caret placed somewhere on the code window first time for this to work).
CTRL plus ALT plus (the letter) O - brings back the Output Window, if like me, you seem to keep losing it. (Small or capital letter o work just fine, by the way).
SHIFT plus F7 takes you from the Code Window into the Designer;
Plain old F7 does the reverse - Designer to Code Window (Wouldn't it be neat if the same key or key combo could just be used to flip-flop backwards and forwards between them, though?)
And finally - possibly my current favourite:
CTRL plus TAB, which brings up a two column list with appropriate icons. The left hand side list is all the current Active Tool Windows, so this includes things like the ToolBox, Data Sources, DataBase Explorer, and that elusive Output Window, etc. What you get will depend on what you've previously opened, of course.
The right side list has all the currently Active Files.
The great thing about this particular display is that you can continue to hold down the Ctrl key and each time you re-press the Tab key you will move down the column you are currently in. Let go of the Tab key and choosing either the Up or Down arrow keys (still in combination with the Ctrl key) will move you up and down the current column.
Then the Ctrl key plus either of the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys will switch you between left and right hand columns. Obviously, finally letting go of the Ctrl key will either open up the window you selected from the right hand column or take you to the appropriate tool window if your last port of call was the left hand column.
There are of course lots more shortcuts available, but I've found that just these few have drastically reduced the mouse action needed for general coding tasks.