Why are these Visual Studio Settings not enabled by default?

Enclosing HTML attribute values within quotes is one of the steps to make your web pages XHTML compliant. The benefit of making your web pages XHTML compliant is that there is a high probability that your pages would become cross-browser too. ScottGu pointed out a tip from the Visual Web Developer MSDN blog (Tip#66) about a Visual Studio 2008 setting that can automatically enclose property values in the HTML editor within quotes while you are typing.
To set this option select Tools->Options. Check Show all settings. From the left pane select Text Editor -> HTML -> Format and check the insert attribute value quotes when typing checkbox.

This is no doubt a cool tip but as an aggrieved reader of that blog post mentioned, why is this nifty, time-saving option not enabled by default?

Similarly, don't we wish any HTML code that we pasted into VS is automatically formatted? Tip #59 -
In Tools->Options dialog, go to Text Editor->HTML->Miscellaneous page. Check ‘Format HTML on paste’ option.

Also, don't we want the Solution Explorer to always show the file currently opened in the Editor highlighted especially when there are a lot of files in the solution?
On the Tools - Options - Projects and Solutions - General page, there's the Track Active Item in Solution Explorer. When enabled, this will sync your solution explorer with the open document.

These small settings can make a big difference for most developers and I wish these were enabled by default.

On a related note, if you are looking for more tips on the VS.NET IDE, check Sara Ford's Visual Studio 2008 Tips and those on the Visual Web Developer MSDN blog. My favorite in the later are:
Tip #23: Did you know…How to launch Formatting options dialog for editor with 2 clicks?
Tip #24: Did you know…You could display CSS/HTML errors as warnings or as errors?
Tip #28 - Did you know… That “Go to definition” is supported for CSS Class?

Also see:
HOW TO achieve XHTML compliance by changing existing HTML code in upper case to lower
VS.NET 2005 keyboard shortcuts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GitHub Copilot Q&A - 1

Image
Key takeaways from the talk in Q&A format - What is GitHub Copilot and how does it work? GitHub Copilot is a suite of tools designed for code completion. It works by analysing the code and comments you type in your IDE and sending that context to GitHub. Copilot then uses OpenAI's language model (in December 2024, it is GPT 4o by default and you can also choose the preview versions of o1-mini & o1-preview if you like) to understand your intent and generate suggestions for code completion. You can then accept, reject, or modify these suggestions. What context does GitHub Copilot consider when making suggestions? Copilot considers the entirety of the file you are currently working on, not just the code from your cursor position upwards. It also analyses the content of other open tabs in your IDE, starting with those closest to the current tab. This helps Copilot focus on the most relevant information. Is it necessary to meticulously manage open tabs for Copilot to work effect...
Read more

Maven Crash Course - Learn Power Query, Power Pivot & DAX in 15 Minutes

Image
In the Maven Crash Course " Learn Power Query, Power Pivot & DAX in 15 Minutes ", Chris Dutton walks through a hypothetical business case while showcasing the power of modern Excel tools like Power Query, Power Pivot and DAX. Power Query is used to extract, transform, and load data from external sources like SQL databases, PDF and CSV files. A relational model is created to join the tables without writing a single formula. Exploratory analysis is done using Power Pivot and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). Data Analysis Expressions is the language that we can use to define new calculated columns and measures to enhance our Data Model instead of the traditional cell formulas that we'd typically use if our data was stored in worksheets. Pivot Charts and slicers are used to design a simple interactive report that the sales managers can use to analyze revenue trends and product performance.
Read more

"Data Prep & Exploratory Data Analysis" course by Maven Analytics

Image
The Maven Analytics course on " Data Prep & Exploratory Data Analysis " by Alice Zhao is a beginner-friendly introduction to machine learning with Python. It covers the key steps of the data science workflow, including: Gathering Data Scoping a Project Modeling Data Sharing Insights Cleaning Data Exploring Data Modeling Data  Sharing Insights The presentation deck which is available as a download crisply summarizes the essential details and is a great reference to keep going back to. The course is well-suited for aspiring data scientists looking to get hands-on experience with the data prep and EDA stages of the machine learning workflow using Python and Jupyter Notebook. 
Read more