Here. Jeff Key shows a sample custom shortcut for expansion, but he doesn’t show what you get. Digging through C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Whidbey\VC#\ExStencil\expansions.xml shows all *kinds* of interesting pre-defined shortcuts to expand. For example, type the following:
class Foo {
property[TAB]
}
And VS.NET Whidbey expands the text to the following:
class Foo {
private int myVar;
public int MyProperty {
get { return myVar; }
set { myVar = value; }
}
}
And not only that, but the “int”, “myVar” and “MyProperty” are really fields in a little ad hoc dialog that VS.NET holds with the programmer to fill in these values one at a time separated by the Tab key. Explaining it is way harder than actually using it. It rocks.
But wait, there’s more. Adding custom shortcuts is merely a matter of adding a new XML file of the appropriate form (see the existing ones for examples) and restarting VS.NET, i.e. no need to edit out-of-the-box VS.NET files, just add your own.
Enjoy.
