DTE Properties Collections
The environment-level properties are organized into categories. There are several predefined categories, each described in this topic, but Visual Studio .NET packages can add their own categories. Each category has a Properties collection for each package or service that contributes to the environment.
Note Not every property page in the Options dialog box supports automation. The property pages that do support automation are listed below.
The same Properies Collection object can be accessed in different locations. For example, a properties collection for fonts and colors might be accessed with either DTE.Properties("Environment", "FontsAndColors") or DTE.Properties("TextEditor", "FontsAndColors").
Environment Properties
This section describes the pages (or properties collections) associated with the Environment category, DTE.Properties("Environment", <Property Page>). The title of each sub-section is the call to access the Properties collection, and the table in each sub-section lists the properties in the found in the collection.
General
DTE.Properties("Environment", "General")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OnStartup | Get/Let (vsStartup) | Determines the environment's behavior on startup, whether to show the home page, the New Project dialog box, the Open Project dialog box, the last solution, and so forth. |
| ShowStatusBar | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the Status Bar is visible. |
| WindowMenuContainsNItems | Get/Let (Short) | Determines how document windows are contained at the bottom of the Windows menu. |
| MRUListContainsNItems | Get/Let (Short) | Determines how many files display in the "Most Recently Used" sub-menu. |
| Animations | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the IDE uses animation in the Status Bar. |
| AnimationSpeed | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines the speed of animations in the Status Bar. |
| ShowCommandWindowCompletion | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the Command window displays completion UI as you type. |
| FindReplaceShowMessageBoxes | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether various Find and Replace dialog boxes are displayed, such as whether or not to display the dialog box warning that a search wrapped past the starting point. |
| FindReplaceInitializeFromEditor | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether initiating a search from the Find dialog box seeds the search pattern from the active documents insertion point location, or with the last pattern searched for in the IDE. |
Documents
DTE.Properties("Environment", "Documents")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ReuseSavedActiveDocWindow | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether opening a new file reuses the current document window if the current document is saved. False means always open a new document window for each document opened. |
| DetectFileChangesOutsideIDE | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the environment automatically reloads files opened in the IDE when the operating system notifies the IDE that the files have been modifed on disk. |
| AutoloadExternalChanges | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether detected external modifications to open documents should automatically reload the modified file if the open document is not modified. If the open document is modified, and this property is True, then the IDE prompts as if this property were False. |
| InitializeOpenFileFromCurrentDocument | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the OpenFile command seeds the directory and filename from the last active document, or from the last place you opened a file. |
| MiscFilesProjectSavesLastNItems | Get/Let (Short) | Determines how many files the Miscellaneous Files Project records, so that the next time you use the IDE, you can see what you most recently had open as a miscellaneous file on disk. |
Help
DTE.Properties("Environment", "Help")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Language | String | Contains the LCID of the language, such as 1033 for English. |
| Collection | String | The name of the Help collection to use for Visual Studio .NET Help, such as "ms-help://msdnvs." |
| External | Boolean | Determines whether or not to view Help outside of the Visual Studio .NET IDE. |
Keyboard
DTE.Properties("Environment", "Keyboard")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme | Get/Let (String) | Returns a string containing the full pathname of the .vsk file that is loaded, or "[default settings]" if none is loaded. |
Projects and Solution
DTE.Properties("Environment", "ProjectsAndSolution")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OnRunOrPreview | Get/Let (vsBuildOptions) | Determines whether the environment saves everything before previewing or running a built project. |
| ProjectsLocation | Get/Let (String) | Determines the default directory where the Add Project dialog box saves new projects. |
| ShowOutputWindowBeforeBuild | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether starting a build should display the Output Window. |
| ShowTaskListAfterBuild | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether an unsuccessful build operation should display the Task List when the build is done. |
TaskList
DTE.Properties("Environment", "TaskList")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ConfirmTaskDeletion | Boolean | Determines whether a confirmation box displays when deleting tasks from the Task List. |
| UserTaskWarning | Boolean | Determines whether you are warned when adding a user task that will not be shown. |
| CommentTokens | SafeArray | Returns a SafeArray of vsCommentToken structs. Each has the fields Name (string) and Priority (vsTaskItemPriority) |
Web Browser
DTE.Properties("Environment", "WebBrowser")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UseDefaultHomePage | Boolean | Determines whether or not to use the default home page. |
| HomePage | String | Represents the home page URL. |
| UseDefaultSearchPage | Boolean | Determines whether or not to use the default search page. |
| SearchPage | String | Represents the search page URL. |
| ViewSourceIn | Enum | vsBrowserViewSource (Source, Design, External). |
| ViewSourceExternalProgram | String | The pathname of the external source viewer. |
Text Editor Properties
This section describes the pages (or properties collections) associated with the Text Editor category in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu. The title of each sub-section is the call used to access its Properties collection, and the table in each sub-section lists the properties of the collection.
General
DTE.Properties("TextEditor", "General")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GoToAnchorAfterEscape | Get/Let (Boolean) | True means hitting escape while there is a selection causes the insertion point to move to where the action that created the selection was initiated. False moves the insertion point to the other end of the selection. |
| DragNDropTextEditing | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether you can drag a selected region of text around in the document for copy or cut/paste operations. |
| HorizontalScrollBar | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether there is a horizontal scrollbar on editor windows. |
| VerticalScrollBar | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether there is a vertical scroll bar on editor windows. |
| SelectionMargin | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether there is space at the left of the text pane for special selection operations, drawing breakpoint icons, and so forth. |
| MarginIndicatorBar | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether there is a vertical line dividing the left margin of the text pane from the main body of the text pane. |
| UndoCaretActions | Get/Let (Boolean) | True means undo operations include insertion point motion, selection commands, and so forth, in addition to editing actions that modify the buffer. |
| AutoDelimiterHighlighting | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether typing a closing delimiter causes the editor to highlight the opening delimiter. The editor always bolds the open delimiter regardless of the value of this property. |
Plain Text
These properties are common for all editors in the IDE, but you can set them individually for each language supported, as shown below with "<SomeRegisteredLanguage>."
DTE.Properties("TextEditor", "PlainText")
-or-
DTE.Properties("TextEditor", "<SomeRegisteredLanguage>")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AutoListMembers | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether an available members list automatically pops up when a user types a period following a variable reference. |
| AutoListParams | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether a description of an argument list automatically displays when the users types a '(' following a function name. |
| HideAdvancedMembers | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the statement completion lists all members or only the commonly used ones. |
| VirtualSpace | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether white space characters are displayed as graphics. Setting this to True causes WordWrap to be set to False. |
| WordWrap | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the view wraps long lines at word boundaries. Setting this to True causes VirtualSpace to be set to False. |
| EnableLeftClickForURLs | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the editor underlines URLs and enables a single left-click for jumping to the URL in the system registered web browser. |
| IndentStyle | Get/Let (IndentStyle) | Determines the indenting style. Settings are: INDENT_NONE, INDENT_DEFAULT (block style), or INDENT_SMART. |
| TabSize | Get/Let (Long) | Represents the number of spaces a tab is equal to. LET'ing an integer outside the range 1..60 (inclusive) fails. |
| InsertTabs | Get/Let (Boolean) | True means to use TAB characters when indenting. |
| IndentSize | Get/Let (Long) | Represents the number of spaces that one indent level is equal to. LET'ing an integer outside the range 1..60 (inclusive) fails. |
| ShowLineNumbers | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the view of a core editor document displays line numbers along the left margin. |
| ShowNavigationBar | Get/Let (Boolean) | Determines whether the drop-down lists and buttons appear at the top of editor windows. |
Fonts and Colors Properties
This sets the fonts and colors for a tool window that is registered to appear in the Fonts and Colorable Items dialog box. These windows are modeled this way rather than in the properties dialog box accessed from DTE.Properties("Environment", "FontsAndColors"). This supports the dynamic nature of groups of colorable items, which can change if Visual Studio .NET packages are installed or uninstalled from the system.
The following section shows an example registered window type and what properties you will see for each window.
Text Editor
DTE.Properties("FontsAndColors", "TextEditor")
-or-
DTE.Properties("FontsAndColors", "<SomeRegisteredWindowOrEditor>")
| Property Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| FontFamily | Get/Let (String) | For example, "Courier New." |
| FontCharacterSet | Get/Let (EnvDTE.FontCharSet) | A vsFontCharSet value. |
| FontSize | Get/Let (Short) | For example, 10. |
| FontsAndColorsItems | Get (FontsAndColorsItems) | ColorableItems objects are contained in the FontsAndColorsItems collection and have the read-only Name property and read/write properties Foreground (OLE.Color), Background (OLE.Color), and Bold (Boolean). |
See Also
Applies To: DTE Object
