How to manipulate tab groups with the keyboard in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

I see you can create a new vertical tab group by assigning a keyboard shortcut to Window.NewVerticalTabGroup.

I am looking for the keyboard shortcuts to do the following actions:

1. Move windows between vertical tab groups
2. Close a vertical tab group (reset the view back to a single code file, the opposite of Window.NewVerticalTabGroup).

Are these actions possible using the keyboard? Thank you!

Answer 1

With some help from Microsoft, I got 75% there with stock Visual Studio 2010. Here are the shortcuts available.

• Window.NewVerticalTabGroup splits the window vertically
• Windows.MovetoPreviousTabGroup and Windows.MovetoNextTabGroup move windows between tab groups, as desired.

The only thing stock Visual Studio is missing is a shortcut to immediate close the tab group (move all tabs to one group). However, using Windows.MovetoPreviousTabGroup and Windows.MovetoNextTabGroup to move all the tabs out of one group will close it.

For those willing to install an (official Microsoft) extension, Productivity Power Tools solves that last 25% by adding commands Window.MoveAllToNextTabGroup and Window.MoveAllToPreviousTabGroup, as well as adding a ton of new functionality for tabs!