VS2010 Disable outlining in xaml, (or disable outlining completely)

Question

In Visual Studio 2010 how can I disable outlining in XAML files please? Or even better just disable outlining entirely for everything.

Every time I move the mouse from the editor pane to the Solution Explorer the mouse crosses over that stupid outlining widget and causes half the editor to start flashing, it's the most irritating thing ever.

Answer 1

I haven't tried it, but I believe setting

<Category name="XAML_Formatting" Category="{dac05320-0c3a-4ead-a332-8c23b0cfc130}" Package="{e58c2a8b-bcc4-4559-ad59-d62eb6d58a22}" RegisteredName="XAML_Formatting" PackageName="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Xaml">
    <PropertyValue name="AutoOutlining">False</PropertyValue>
</Category>

in your Visual Studio settings file (.vssettings) should work.

In order to disable outlining entirely you need to set a few more variables in that file to false.

An example of a vssettings file is avaliable here, though this isn't a recommended configuration or anything just an example.

<PropertyValue name="EnterOutliningModeOnOpen">0</PropertyValue> for the C# and J# sections

<PropertyValue name="AutoOutlining">False</PropertyValue> for XML

<PropertyValue name="Outlining">False</PropertyValue> for Basic (I presume VB)

The following values for C & C++.

<PropertyValue name="EnterOutliningModeWhenFilesOpen">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="AutomaticOutliningOfStatementBlocks">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="AutomaticOutliningOfPragmaRegions">tfalse</PropertyValue>

Regarding the GUI method of turning off outlining for various languages in Visual Studio see here.

Alternately you could implement a custom language service that has outlining disabled and that is set to override all language settings as part of your Visual Studio settings file. Though this approach is probably more trouble than it is worth.