Copy pasting things in xaml auto-indents?

Question

This is something that has bothered me for some time, and I'm not sure if it's some setting that can be turned off or not, but whenever I copy and paste something in xaml in VS 2010 it always auto-indents the line that I'm on and often the one after it for some reason. For example, say I have these lines of xaml code:

                                <TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Top" Foreground="Red" FontSize="11" Width="5"
                                    Text="*" Visibility="{Binding Path=ShowInvalidFlag,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />

                                <TextBlock Width="Auto" Background="Transparent" Text="{Binding Path=QuestionValue}" />

and then I realize that the first TextBlock needs a Margin defined and I copy Margin="0,1,0,0" from another control within the same xaml document and paste it within the declaration of the above TextBlock it auto-indents and I end up with this:

                                    <TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,1,0,0" Foreground="Red" FontSize="11" Width="5"
                                    Text="*" Visibility="{Binding Path=ShowInvalidFlag,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />

                                <TextBlock Width="Auto" Background="Transparent" Text="{Binding Path=QuestionValue}" />

Why is it doing this? It doesn't even have to be copied from the same xaml file or even xaml code (I just tried copying random text from a text file and pasted it within the control and it still auto-indented). It's quite frustrating that every time I paste something in xaml I need to re-adjust my indentation.

Answer 1

Converted from comment:

If you search in the options in VS you should be able to find under Text Editor and Xaml an option for Indenting. By default it's set to "smart" which isn't always as smart as you might want it to be. Play around with that and see if it's more comfortable for you. Copy / pasting seems to be particularly prone to tripping it up.

In addition, you can also always so to "Edit" -> "Advanced" and then either "Format Document" or "Format Selection" to force Visual Studio to take another pass at formatting which may either fix, or make worse, your problem.

I think the problem is that it tries to optimize between speed and correctness. When you paste something it may not consider the entire context of where you are pasting and instead only look at the immediate parent and / or siblings which is a problem when you are pasting in a whole bunch of stuff.