Tool Spotlight is a new type of post that I am trying out to bring attention to tools that I find useful and worth sharing. These entries will not be on any sort of schedule and will get posted anytime I come across a tool worth mentioning.
This post is going to cover two Visual Studio extensions that I find very helpful especially in the context of writing ASP.NET Core applications. Both of today’s extensions were written by Mads Kristensen.
Add New File
The Add New File extension provides a simple way of adding new files without having to go through Visual Studio’s add new item dialog. Visual Studio’s dialog is great when I need it, but a lot of times I am adding a html or JavaScript file and just want a blank file and this extension provides a mechanism to do just that.
Lets look at the difference in the two dialogs. Here is Visual Studio’s dialog:
And here is what the add new file’s dialog looks like:
As you can see the extension’s dialog is much simpler. After the extension is install simply hit Shift+F2 to show the above dialog, enter a file name and click Add file to create a file in the current directory. Directories will also be crated as needed.
Open Command Line
The Open Command Line extension provides a way to open a console from within Visual Studio. The default console application is configurable with options from cmd and PowerShell to cmder and custom user defined applications. Opening the default console to the current directory of the selected item in Visual Studio’s solution explorer can be triggered using the Alt+Space shortcut. The extension also adds an Open Command Line option to the right click menu in solution explorer.
Thoughts and Suggestions
Leave any thoughts on if this sort of post is helpful, your favorite tools or suggestions for future topics in the comments.