Options Dialog Box

  • Article

You can change many of the settings that affect the integrated development environment (IDE) in the Options dialog box. For example, you can establish a default save location for your projects, alter the default appearance and behavior of windows, and create shortcuts for commonly used commands. In addition, the Options dialog box contains a variety of language, platform and product specific options. Experiment with the settings in the Options dialog box until you find the best environment for your needs. To access this dialog box select Options from the Tools menu.

  • Layout of the Options Dialog Box
    The Options dialog box is divided into two parts: a navigation pane on the left and a page display area on the right. The navigation pane contains folders, such as Environment, Source Control, and Text Editor. Each folder contains a variety of pages. The HTML Designer folder for example, contains two pages, General and Display. When you select a page, its contents appear in the page display area of the Options dialog box.

    Clicking OK in the Options dialog box saves all Options settings, including settings made on other pages. Clicking Cancel on any Options dialog box page cancels all change requests, including those made on other pages. Although they have been saved, some options, such as those made on the Font and Colors page, take affect after you close and reopen Visual Studio .NET.

  • Obtaining help in the Options dialog box
    To see documentation for any page in the Options dialog box, go to the page and press F1.

    IDE feature options do not appear in the Options dialog box until the feature loaded into memory. Therefore you might not see the same options you saw during your last session. When you create a project or use a command that uses a particular application, the options appear in the Options dialog box and remain available as long as the IDE feature remains in memory. Common options are always available.

    Caution   Clicking Cancel cancels all changes in all categories of the dialog box. No changes are saved in any category.

    For information on See
    Environment Options Environment, Options Dialog Box
    Source Control Options General, Source Control, Options Dialog Box
    Text Editor Options: General, Environment, Options Dialog Box
    .NET Framework Designer Options Windows Forms Designer, Options Dialog Box
    Analyzer Options Analyzer (Options Dialog Box)
    Database Tools Options Database Tools, Options Dialog Box
    Debugging Options Debugging User Interface Reference
    HTML Designer Options HTML Designer
    Projects Options VC++ Build, Projects, Options Dialog Box

See Also

Environment, Options Dialog Box | Database Tools, Options Dialog Box | Windows Forms Designer, Options Dialog Box