Add Existing Project Dialog Box

Use this dialog box to select existing projects and add them to your solution. You can add an existing project from local or network directories and Web sites. Access the Add Existing Project dialog box by selecting Add Project on the File menu. A solution must be open in order to access this dialog box.

For a conceptual overview of solutions and projects, see Introduction to Solutions, Projects, and Items.

**Caution   **Before opening an existing project or component, determine the trustworthiness of the code outside of the Visual Studio designer. Opening projects or components in the Visual Studio designer automatically executes code from that project or component on your local machine in the trusted process of devenv.exe.

Note   Before adding an existing project from shared directories in a multi-developer environment, you should attempt to ensure that your changes do not adversely affect or overwrite another developer's changes.

• Look in
  Use this drop-down list box to select an existing project by exploring a hierarchically structured view of files, folders, local drives, mapped network drives, and pointers to other Web resources on your computer.

  **Tip   **You can use the Look in drop-down list box to add, modify, or remove an FTP location.

• History
  Displays the most recently modified project files and folders.

• My Projects
  Displays the files and folders at the location specified in the Projects and Solutions page in the Environment section of the Options dialog box. Projects are saved by default to n:\Documents and Settings\user profile name\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects.

• Desktop
  Displays the files and folders located on the desktop.

• Favorites
  Displays the contents of your Internet Explorer Favorites.

  Tip   To add a link to your Favorites folder from this dialog box, locate the folder to which you want to add in the Look in drop-down list box and select Add to Favorites on the Tools drop-down menu.

• My Network Places
  Displays the contents of your My Network Places folder. Use Add Network Place to add another network resource to this folder for easy retrieval.

• File name
  Use this text box to filter files and folders by name. Type the full or partial file name on which to filter, using an asterisk (*) as the wildcard character. Filtering allows you to locate a file or folder whose full name or exact location is unknown.

  Tip   Navigate to Web and network locations by entering the URL or network path in the File name box. For example, "https://mywebsite" displays the files available at the "mywebsite" Web location and "\\myserver\myshare" displays the files available at the "myshare" location on "myserver." You can also open a project from a Web location by selecting Open from Web Server in the Tools menu of the Open dialog box.

• Files of type
  Use this text box to filter project files by file extension. This drop-down list box contains all project file types for installed Visual Studio components. Filtering by file type is especially useful when searching for a project item whose exact name is not known.

• Navigate Back
  

  Returns the most recently viewed folder, drive, or internet location.

• Up One Level
  

  Navigates the tree to the next highest folder in the tree view.

• Search the Web
  

  Opens your Web browser to its specified search page.

• Delete
  

  Deletes the selected files or folders from storage.

• New Folder
  

  Displays the New Folder dialog box. Use this option to create a new child folder under the folder selected in the Look in drop-down list box.

Views

Provides options for arranging and viewing the contents of the item selected in the Views drop-down list box.

The following fields are available through the Look in drop-down list box:

• List
  Select to display files, folders, and other items in a list format.
• Details
  Select to display the name, size, type, and last-modified date of files, folders, and other items in a list format. To sort by a particular detail, click its column header.
• Properties
  Select to display the names and properties of files, folders, and other items. When selected, the content pane divides in half: the left half displays the item's name and the right half displays the selected item's properties.
• Preview
  Select to display a preview of the file. When selected, divides the content pane in half: the left half displays the files and folders and the right half displays a preview of the file. This is useful when looking for a particular graphic file.
• Arrange Icons
  Has the same effect as selecting one of the column headers in Details View to sort by that column. Arrange Icons is useful when arranging items by a property other than Name (by Size, for example) in a view other than Details (Preview, for example).

Tools

Use to select a tool to apply to the item selected in the content pane

• Delete
  Deletes the selected file or folder from storage.
• Add to Favorites
  Adds the file or folder to your Internet Explorer Favorites.
• Map Network Drive
  Displays the Map Network Drive dialog box, which allows you to connect to a machine on a network.
• Open from Web Server
  Displays the Connect to Web Server dialog box, allowing you to locate and open a project that exists on a Web server.

See Also

Introduction to Solutions, Projects, and Items | Managing Solutions, Projects, and Files | Projects as Containers