{"id":233857,"date":"2021-08-30T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/?p=233857"},"modified":"2021-08-10T12:15:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T19:15:18","slug":"optimizing-toolbars-for-your-workflow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/optimizing-toolbars-for-your-workflow\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimizing toolbars for your workflow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Visual Studio is the application I use the most on any given workday, and I consider it my virtual home. It\u2019s where I\u2019m comfortable, productive, excited, frustrated, and happy. I love Visual Studio. Over the years, I\u2019ve learned how to optimize it for my various development workflows\u2014I personalized it. Just like I would with a home in the real world.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most visible \u2014 and arguably iconic \u2014 things about Visual Studio is the Standard toolbar. It\u2019s always right there in front of you. Here\u2019s how I made it mine.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hIIfjCw1JKc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before we dive in, this is what the Standard toolbar looks like in Visual Studio 2022.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-233858\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar.png\" alt=\"Image standard toolbar\" width=\"892\" height=\"89\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar.png 892w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-300x30.png 300w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-768x77.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 892px) 100vw, 892px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s got commands for navigation, opening and saving files, undo and redo, etc. Those are all very useful commands that I use all the time, but I never use them from the toolbar. I know the keyboard shortcuts for those, so there is no reason for the commands to take up space in my toolbar.<\/p>\n<p>To remove them, click on the right-hand side of the toolbar to expand the <strong>Add or Remove Buttons<\/strong> menu.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-remove-buttons.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-233860\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-remove-buttons.png\" alt=\"Image add remove buttons\" width=\"697\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-remove-buttons.png 697w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-remove-buttons-300x136.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That will show all the commands currently available for this toolbar, and you can the select or deselect the ones you want to be visible. I uncheck all the commands I don\u2019t need and add the <strong>Manage Extensions<\/strong> command. The toolbar now looks like this:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-ext-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-233868 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-ext-1.png\" alt=\"Image standard toolbar ext\" width=\"891\" height=\"89\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-ext-1.png 891w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-ext-1-300x30.png 300w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-ext-1-768x77.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 891px) 100vw, 891px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Much more my style. I like it.<\/p>\n<p>A command I use all the time is to show the <strong>Tools -&gt; Options<\/strong> dialog. So why not put that on the toolbar for easy access? To do that, I open the <strong>Add and Remove Button<\/strong> menu again and hit the <strong>Customize\u2026<\/strong> button at the bottom of the list.\u00a0 A dialog pops up:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/customize-command.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-233861\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/customize-command.png\" alt=\"Image customize command\" width=\"500\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/customize-command.png 500w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/customize-command-288x300.png 288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>From here I can add any command or flyout menu to the toolbar. Click the <strong>Add Command\u2026<\/strong> button to open the command window and find the <strong>Options\u2026<\/strong> command.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-command.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-233859\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-command.png\" alt=\"Image add command\" width=\"500\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-command.png 500w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/add-command-300x191.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Clicking <strong>OK<\/strong> will insert the command on the toolbar and it now looks exactly like I want it to.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-finished.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-233863\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-finished.png\" alt=\"Image standard toolbar finished\" width=\"891\" height=\"89\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-finished.png 891w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-finished-300x30.png 300w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/08\/standard-toolbar-finished-768x77.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 891px) 100vw, 891px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Perfect.<\/p>\n<h2>Not just toolbars<\/h2>\n<p>You can modify any toolbar using these same techniques as well as any top menu and context menu. So, you are in complete control over the command system and can optimize it to your exact workflows.<\/p>\n<p>How do you optimize the toolbars and menus in your Visual Studio? Which commands do you use most from the toolbar or menus? How can we make personalizing Visual Studio easier? Chime in from the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visual Studio is the application I use the most on any given workday, and I consider it my virtual home. It\u2019s where I\u2019m comfortable, productive, excited, frustrated, and happy. I love Visual Studio. Over the years, I\u2019ve learned how to optimize it for my various development workflows\u2014I personalized it. Just like I would with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":642,"featured_media":233861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[6825],"class_list":["post-233857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-studio","tag-personalize"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Visual Studio is the application I use the most on any given workday, and I consider it my virtual home. It\u2019s where I\u2019m comfortable, productive, excited, frustrated, and happy. I love Visual Studio. Over the years, I\u2019ve learned how to optimize it for my various development workflows\u2014I personalized it. Just like I would with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/642"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}