Documents, Environment, Options Dialog Box

Use this page of the Options dialog box to control the display and manage external changes to various documents and files in the integrated development environment (IDE). You can access this dialog box by selecting Options from the Tools menu and choosing the Documents page from the Environment folder.

• Re-use current document window, if saved
  When selected, closes your current document if it has been saved, and opens a new document in the same window. If your current document has not been saved, it remains open and the new document is opened in a separate window. When this option is not selected, new documents always open in separate windows.

  If you infrequently perform multi-document cut and paste operations, and want to minimize the number of open documents and windows in your working space, you might enable this option to gauge its applicability to your working habits.

• Detect when file is changed outside the environment
  When selected, a message immediately notifies you of changes to an open file that have been made by an editor outside the IDE. The message allows you to reload the file from storage.

• Auto-load changes (if not currently modified inside the environment)
  When you have Detect when file is changed outside the IDE checked and an open file in the IDE changes outside the IDE, a warning message is generated by default. If this option is enabled, no warning will appear and the document will be reloaded in the IDE to pick up the external changes.

• Allow editing of read-only files, warn when attempt to save
  When this option is enabled you can open and edit a read-only file. When done, you must use the Save As command to save the file by a new name if you want to save a record of your changes.

• Open file using directory of currently active document
  When selected, this option specifies that the Open File dialog box display the directory of the active document. When this option is not selected, the Open File dialog box displays the directory last used to open a file.

• Show Miscellaneous Files in Solution Explorer
  Select this option to display the Miscellaneous Files node in Solution Explorer. Miscellaneous files are files that are not associated with a project or solution but can appear in Solution Explorer for your convenience.

  Note   Select this option to enable the View in Browser command on the File menu for Web documents not included in the active Web application.

• Miscellaneous files project saves last <n> items
  If you want the Miscellaneous files folder to be displayed, this option specifies how many recently used miscellaneous files are restored to the Miscellaneous Files folder in Solution Explorer when you open the solution. You can type in a whole number from 0 to 256. The default is 0.

Find and Replace

• Show message boxes
  Choose this option to display message boxes with the "don't show me again" option that appear during find and replace operations. Clear this option to hide such message boxes. This option does not affect find and replace message boxes without the "don't show me again" option. If the Show message boxes option appears in gray, or indeterminate state, the "don't show me again" option has been selected for one or more different message boxes. Clear and re-select this option to once again display all message boxes.
• Initialize Find text from editor
  Select this option to automatically copy text around the cursor in the editor to the Find what textbox in the Find, Find in Files, Replace and Replace in Files dialog boxes. Clearing this option reuses the last search pattern from the previous search in the Find what textbox.

See Also

Environment, Options Dialog Box | Miscellaneous Files | Managing Files in the Miscellaneous Files Folder | Searching and Replacing