User Interfaces

Presents best practices for changing the content and appearance of UI elements.

Provides guidelines to help you match the UI of the Visual Studio IDE.

Explains how to create a UI that includes menus, toolbars, and command combo boxes.

Describes how to create tool windows such as the Task List, Solution Explorer, and Properties window.

Provides information about how to create document windows, such as those that display editors and designers.

Introduces the different types of editors Visual Studio provides and explains how you can create custom editors.

Explains how to add new controls and other items to the Toolbox and how to use Toolbox functionality.

Describes how you can access status bar functionality from your VSPackage.

Explains how the Properties window works and how to control the display of information in it.

Explains how you can write to and read from the Output window, and how you can create and manage custom panes.

Describes how to create and register a task provider, and how to create custom task views.

Describes how to program your VSPackage to obtain and preserve user preferences.

Shows how VSPackages can query the IDE for the correct colors, cursors, theme brushes, gradient schemes, and palettes that you can use in a UI element.

Explains how to use fonts and colors to display text.

Explains how to author Help content and how to integrate Help with your product or component.

Introduces the Visual Studio SDK and discusses how to build products that run in and extend the Visual Studio IDE.