C# 2008 Programmer's Reference

Figure 2-2 

Resetting the Development Settings

If for some reason you want to change the development settings after you have set them, you can always select Tools→Import and Export Settings to reset the settings. In the Import and Export Settings Wizard dialog that appears (see Figure 2-3), you can:

Figure 2-3 

□ Export the settings to a file so that they can be exported to another machine

□ Import a saved setting

□ Reset all the settings

To reset to another setting, check the Reset All Settings option and click Next. In the next step, you can choose either to save your current settings or to just reset the settings without saving. Once you have selected the option, click Next, and you can select another setting (see Figure 2-4).

Figure 2-4

Creating a New Project

After you select a default setting, Visual Studio 2008 takes a couple of minutes to initialize. Once that's done, you will see something as shown in Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-5 

To create a new project, select File→New→Project (see Figure 2-6).

Figure 2-6

In the Visual C# development setting, you see the New Project dialog shown in Figure 2-7.

Figure 2-7

The default project name (WindowsFormApplication1 in this example) is provided, along with the following:

□ The default location for saving the project.

□ The solution name. The solution name by default is the same as your project name and is changed automatically to be the same as the project name. However, you can modify the solution name if you want it to have a different name than the project name.

□ A separate directory to store the solution; if you uncheck the Create Directory For Solution checkbox, a solution is not be created for your project.

You can target a different version of the .NET Framework by selecting it from the dropdown list at the top right corner of the New Project dialog (see Figure 2-8).

Figure 2-8

Remember: A solution contains one or more projects.

Components of the IDE

Figure 2-9 shows the various parts of the Visual Studio 2008 development environment.

Figure 2-9

These parts are described in the following sections.

Menu Bar

The Menu bar contains standard Visual Studio commands. For example, Figure 2-10 shows that the File menu (see Figure 2-10) contains commands that enable you to create new projects, open existing projects, save the current form, and so on.

Figure 2-10 

To customize the items displayed in the Menu bar, select Tools→Customize to display the Customize dialog (see Figure 2-11). Click on the Commands tab; the list of main menu items (Action, Addins, Analyze, and so forth) is on the left. Selecting a main menu item displays the list of available submenu items on the right. You can rearrange the submenu items by dragging them and dropping them onto the desired main menu item.

Figure 2-11 

To add a new submenu item to a main menu item, click the Rearrange Commands button. In the Rearrange Commands dialog (see Figure 2-12), select the menu you want to customize, and click the Add button. You can then select the various submenu items from the different categories to add to the menu.

Figure 2-12 

Toolbar

The Toolbar (see Figure 2-13) contains shortcuts to many of the often used commands contained in the Menu bar.

Figure 2-13

As with the Menu bar, the Toolbar is also customizable. To add additional toolbars, simply right-click on any existing toolbar and check the toolbar(s) you want to add to Visual Studio from the list of toolbars available (see Figure 2-14).

Figure 2-14

To customize the Toolbar, select Tools→Customize. On the Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog (see Figure 2-15), check the toolbar(s) you want to add to Visual Studio. You can create your own custom toolbar by clicking the New button.

Figure 2-15

As with the Menu bar, you can also rearrange the items displayed in each toolbar. To customize the items displayed in the Toolbar, select Tools→Customize to open the Customize dialog and then click the Rearrange Commands button. The Rearrange Commands dialog allows you to add/delete items from each toolbar (see Figure 2-16).

Figure 2-16

Each toolbar in the Toolbar can also be physically rearranged in Visual Studio by dragging the four-dot line on the left edge of the toolbar (see Figure 2-17) and relocating it to the new desired position.