Visual Favorites at NOPcode.com

Visual Studio Favorites

Personalized custom shortcuts, web page links, and program access from Visual Studio.

Introduction:

Visual Studio Favorites (VS Favs or VSF) is a Visual Studio 6.0 add-in that puts a shortcut and favorite access menu in the Visual Studio toolbar. This Favorites Menu is configurable, and can launch documents, programs, web shortcuts, folders, source code files, studio projects, and even browser databases - anything that Explorer can launch, this can too! All from within the comfort of your Visual Studio environment. You can configure the program to make your development life easier and quicker, with common projects and data files right at your fingertips.

In addition, VS Favs uses an XML file to store your configuration, making it very portable and easy to back up. This is extremely handy when you have to re-install Visual Studio for whatever reason, and your Tools menu has gotten deleted in the process.

This release of Visual Studio Favorites is currently in 1.1.0. Source code is also downloadable. New: icons per item. Might help with some clutter, or make it worse!

System Requirements:

Visual Studio Favorites requires Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, any service pack level, however, it has only been tested with SP4 and SP5. Either Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Microsoft XML 3.0 is also required (you do not need both). If you have Internet Explorer 5.0 or 5.5, then the XML 3.0 install is suggested, as it will not force your browser to update, and is the smallest download (650k). The installer will automatically check and give you the option to visit Microsoft's web pages for the downloads.

Using Visual Studio Favorites:

Visual Studio Favorites has been designed to be easy and straight-forward to understand and use. The hardest part is deciding which items to put into your Favorites menu!

Installation
Simply download the Visual Studio Favorite install program, and run it. It will install the add-on into Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0. The download is very small - less than 210k - and takes almost no time to run. If you need to re-install, the program will not overwrite your existing Favorites file. Once the install is completed, run Visual Studio, select Tools, then Customize, and then the Add-Ins tab. Check the FavoritesAddIn and click Close.

Selecting Favorites
To use an existing Favorite (the default installation comes with several popular ones pre-configured), simply click on the Favorites toolbar icon. This displays a menu of the current Favorites that you have. Click on any Favorite menu item to select & use that item, or else click away from the menu to close it. Just like any other menu on any other program.

Editing your Favorites
To edit your Favorites, click on the Visual Studio Favorites icon, and select the Config menu option (the first one). This brings up the Configuration Dialog, which allows you to add, delete, modify, and re-arrange your Favorites. You may also undo the last action that you did, and when you are finished with editing, hitting Done will save the settings to the XML configuration file. Click here for a picture of the Config dialog.

Editing an existing Favorite
Selecting a Favorite from the tree list will put the selection's information in the bottom part of the dialog. You can change any information here - the type, the name, and the file or action the Favorite will do. Tabbing away from any edit field or selecting a different Favorite will make the changes to that item. If you make a mistake, use the Undo Last button to correct it.
Item edit boxes
During the time you're playing with the Config dialog, you might notice that the My Documents favorite's file looks very strange - the format used is what Explorer uses to launch special folders that have a GUID on the system. In this case, this item is the same one that My Documents is tied into. My Computer, for example, has a GUID of ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}, so you could put this into a new Favorites item and it will open My Computer for you. If you know the GUID's for other special folders and system objects, you can put them in this format also.

Adding a new Favorite
Just click on the Add New button, and a new blank Favorite is added to the end of the list. You can then choose what kind of Favorite it is, and fill in the information about it.

There are several different Favorites types that you can use:

Hyperlinks (web browser shortcuts)
Documents (any file type, such as CPP files or DSW projects, or Word files, bitmaps, etc)
Programs (such as Notepad or your install builder)
Browser databases (VS Favs comes pre-configured with the MFC browser database)
Visual folders (allows you to group items, not folders on the disk drive)
and a simple Separator line to visually divide items.

Adding Folders
Folder config shot

Folders allow you to arrange your Favorites into collections or groups - just like folders on your hard drive, Folders in your Favorites lets you put things together. The default Favorites collection that comes with the install puts all of the web pages in a Web Links folder.

To make a folder, select an existing Favorite item and then click on the Insert Folder button - this makes a new folder and places the selected item within it. You can then rename the folder to whatever you want - for example, Code Snippets if that is what you intend to put in it.

Making Copies
To duplicate a Favorite, simply select it and then click Make Copy. This will clone the Favorite right below the current one, and select the new one. Note that Make Copy will not duplicate the contents of a select folder item.

Deleting a Favorite
Simply select the Favorite you wish to remove, and click on Delete Item to remove the Favorite. If you make a mistake, click on the Undo Last button to recover it. Note that deleting a Folder item will of course remove all the Favorites from within it!

Re-arranging the Favorites
Dragging shot Moving a Favorite from one spot in the list to the other, or in and out of a folder, is done by clicking and dragging. Simply click and hold the left mouse button, and drag it to where you want it to be at - a thick black line appears, showing you where it will be moved to. The example picture shows the user is dragging Code Project so that it appears before Code Guru in the Web Links folder. If the user release the mouse button at this point, Code Project moves before Code Guru. Changing the order and placement of Favorites does not affect anything other than how the list visually appears. Note that moving a Favorite onto a collapsed folder will automatically expand it (just like Windows Explorer does). Experiment with moving the Favorites around - you'll find that it's easy and quick to understand, and makes organizing them a lot faster than a move up or down button!

Uninstalling
If you find that you need to uninstall Visual Studio Favorites, you can do so by using the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel folder.

Limitations:

This program is currently in Full Public Release - everything works as we expect it to do so, which means the source code is now also available. Legally, you are not allowed to sell or profit from the program and source code, of course. You can use the source code to get ideas on how to do certain operations, but just making some changes then calling it your own work is out of the question. Of course, any bug fixes, enhancements, or other changes to the program that you make we would very much like to have so they can be put into the next version; full credit is given of course. Email us with them.

Known Issues

There is currently no method of importing or using your current Internet Explorer favorites or Netscape shortcuts.
With v1.1, the icons defaults to ON. If this is causing you visual clutter and confusion, you can turn it off by MANUALLY editing your FavoritesAddInConfig.xml file - change the <MenuItems> element to read <MenuItems IconLevel="0"> - 0 is off, 1 is on. You do not need to exit Visual Studio to do this - the xml file is re-parsed whenever VSFavs is used.

Version History

March 17th, 2003 - version 1.1 released. This version supports per-entry icons now.
August 24th, 2002 - version 1.0, first public full release with source code.
Feburary 4th, 2002 - inital beta release, no source code.

Legal Stuff:

This program, documentation, images, source code, and all works derived herefrom, are the legal property of NOPcode.com and Fresh Ground Software. Copyright (C) 2002 NOPcode.com. No part may be used without the express written consent of the author.

Downloadables:

There is are only two downloads - the install of the binaries, and optionally, the source code! Grab it and run it. We have provided both a straight EXE of the install, and a zip'ed version of it in case you have problems with the exe and firewalls etc.

Current Visual Studio Favorites install - exe file, 215k -or- pkzip file, 206k

Current Visual Studio Favorites source - pkzip file, 73k. Requires updated Microsoft SDK to build.

Mailing List:

Join our extremely low-volume mailing list for notifications when the program is updated. 100% no spam, ever.

Updated: Thursday, Sep 18, 2008
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