Visual Studio - how do you use it without touching your mouse?

Question

I am going to be doing the codekata defined on Roy Osherove's blog HERE.

One of the rules is that you cannot use the mouse while doing the kata.

Today, my first attempt at doing the kata I have spent the whole time trying to better understand how to use VS without the mouse. I have learned that CTL-ALT-A will be my friend because I can type commands there.

Does somebody have a pointer to a complete reference to the VS Commmands. I want the command name (Edit.ToggleBookmark), command keystroke (like Ctl-K,K), and any arguments required by the command.

Some specific questons I have.

• Does someone know a keystroke for pinning the active window without using the mouse.
• Also, I cannot figure out how to add a reference without using the keyboard.

If you can help with those two then I will be significantly farther along.

Thanks.

Seth

edit

Just figured out how to add references. I was working on a project that was not saved and Add References command (Project.AddReference) was returning an error...and I thought it was because I was using the command...but it was actually because I had not saved the project yet.

SO.... if you could help me with the window pinning that would be great.

Seth

EVEN WITH ALL THE HELPS FIGURING OUT COMMANDS...I still cannot figure out how to
- pin a Visual Studio window so it stays open.
- And how do you trigger the context menu any a window. For example, solution explorer?
- How do you delete or remove a file?

EDIT

This StackOverflow question answers the context menu question.

Now...if someone can tell me how to pin a window. That would be awesome.

Seth

Answer 1

Does somebody have a pointer to a complete reference to the VS Commmands. I want the command name (Edit.ToggleBookmark), command keystroke (like Ctl-K,K), and any arguments required by the command.

Because it's entirely user definable, I don't think any online reference for keystrokes will do you any good -- I personally have my own keyboard shortcut profile that works best for me.

Therefore, here's the best way to learn every command and its keyboard shortcuts:

1. Load Visual Studio
2. Go to the Tools -> Options menu.
3. Select "Keyboard" in the options list on the left.

Et Voila! Every possible command in VS and its keyboard shortcut (if it's assigned), along with the ability to assign your own. Oh, and search, too!