Save and restore code clippings in Visual Studio Toolbox

Question

I occasionally give demos and training at my office. I have seen and used the technique where you drag code into the Visual Studio toolbox, so that you can later drag it into a code file during a demo.

My question: I would like to be able to save and later reload tabs (each tab contains a demo/tutorial of code snips), so that I can get rid of clippings that I am not using, but still get them back.

Anyone know how to do that in Visual Studio? (using VS 2012 Professional)

Note: I have seen this article that describes where they are saved: Where does Visual Studio save code blocks that are dragged on the Toolbox

However, I am looking for a way to restore the snippets without restoring my entire set of vs settings.

Answer 1

If you still have the tool box options available in VS, in theory you can export just the toolbox contents through Tools > Import and Export Settings... and import them later.

On the Import and Export Settings Wizard, choose Export..., click Next >. In the Choose Settings to Export > Which settings do you want to export? list, clear everything and then navigate to General Settings > Toolbox and select it. Then click Next > and save the file where you want.

Afterwards you should be able to restore just the Toolbox settings by using the Tools > Import and Export Settings... dialog.

Note that after I did an import I didn't see the snippet in the Toolbox, using VS 2017 V15.2, until I shut VS down and re-started it.