Visual Studio 2012 Dff tool only show one file - visual-studio-2012

I was using the built in file compare utility in VS 2012 to compare two files in source code history. It did something to cause one side of the comparison to go away and I have gone insane trying to figure out how to bring it back. How do I make it so both files show side-by-side?
I have already tried: Closing all windows and re-opening them, restarting VS, Deleting the .SUO file and reloading the project. - No dice.

The toolbar at the top of the window will have a dropdown list button that looks like two papers side by side. Click on the button and select "Side-by-Side-Mode".

Choose the "Side by Side mode" in the tool bar.

Related

Visual Studio: CTRL-TAB doesn't always work

This post originally related to "Visual Studio", but affects other similar applications.
There are a number of posts dealing with a problem where the tab navigation panel appears but requires a click etc to dismiss. These seem to be solved by fiddling with the magnifyer, narrator etc. None of these solutions apply to my problem - which is that, in VS2012, ctrl-tab brings up the two-column navigation panel, repeated presses of tab moves through the lists as normal, but, on release of both keys, the focussed tab is NOT changed. With the nav panel displayed, you can click on it with the mouse and the focussed tab is changed as expected.
The issue seems to have arisen after installing VS2012. VS2010 is also installed and oddly now also exhibits the same problem, even though I have never had the problem until now. When you re-start VS, all works fine, but after a time ctrl-tab stops working normally. It has been seen to stop working without doing anything other than pressing ctrl-tab a few times i.e. not going to any other VS panel or doing a build etc.
This is a major problem with productivity as I use this constantly to switch between tabs. I know that I can change the shortcut to switch between documents without showing the navigation panel, but I prefer to see this panel, rather than switching 'blind'.
Does anyone know why this might be happening or how to fix it? I have done a full Windows update (Svr 2008 R2).
NOTE1 - I now see the same problem with a new installation of VS2013 and also in SQL Server Management Studio 2012 - on ctrl-tab you see the two-col panel but whatever you select doesn't change the pane in view (unless you click the panel with the mouse).
When ctrl-tab is not working in the VS-based apps, it DOES continue working in, say, Notepad++, which suggests an MS-VS problem.
NOTE2 - The problem does not exist when you use the on-screen keyboard! It seems that using the OSK causes ctr-tab to work again with the real keyboard, but it breaks quickly when you start almost any other application, but it always works with the OSK. The problem is unrelated to the physical keyboard as I have tried other keyboards.
Thanks

visual studio 2010 not opening projects

i just installed visual studio 2010 and it is not opening any projects .I can make projects but i can not add any file in it and also it is not opening recent projects.
I am stuck here , kindly cooperate with me!
OK, sounds like the installaion got munged up.
first obvious questions: do you have any code that has actually been saved?
If "yes," copy that code to an alternate location, and use the simplest solution: use the Windows Control Panel to deinstall the MSVC instance and reinstall. If no code saved, just de-install and reinstall.
That's the obvious answer. You may also check the location for the project files, and the settings Visual Studios uses.
from the toolbar, click "tools".
From the drop-down list select "options"
Within the displayed list, scroll down to "projects and solutions"
expand that list (click on the little "+" box)
3 locations will be displayed.
Make sure you have write permission to all three locations
all the check boxes should be selected. Especially the one marked "save new projects when created"
click "OK" to accept the changes

Visual Studio 2012 changes focus to design pane

when you change documents (ctrl+tab) on WPF (maybe others too) the focus always goes to the design pane.
So imagine - you edit XAML and want to copy an existing element from another existing document.
You are in Doc1 XAML type somethinng next you switch to Doc2 where you have been in XAML pane before.
Now the Designer of Doc2 gets the focus. Since I left the focus in XAML I use shift arrow to select some XAML text - instead the focused control is moved.
The same when you switch back.
VS 2012 simply doesn't remember in which pane (XAML / design) the focus has been.
This is really hard for me since I do this often - and now I have always to grab the mouse and switch back to XAML after changing the current document.
Any idea if this can be change? Or at least if there is a keyboard shortcut to swicht from one XAML to another.
Are you looking for Shift+ESC. This closes the current window that is in focus in Visual Studio Eg. Solution Explorer, Output Window, Immediate window, etc.
Doesn't pressing Shift+F7 help you?
I was getting so frustrated by this but I finally found a work around! If you have a pane collapsed then and only then shift+F7 seems to switch between the panes. The work around drawback is that you only get to view one pane (Designer or XAML) at a time. For some reason Shift+F7 doesn't work when in split view. Small caveat, I am in Visual Studio 2015. I suspect the behavior is the same for 2012. This answer may be more relevant to whomever comes across this knowing that it works for vs2015 though.
Hit Collapse View
Another thing that is important to note is how to ensure one pane is collapsed.
Visual studio seems to remember the last view you had the XAML designer in for that particular XAML file. You can change them per file and visual studio will remember or you can change the default mode a .xaml file will open in by going to (in visual-studio-2015) the tools menu item. Then click options, which opens the options window. Then click XAML Designer, which is the last option in pane on the left of options window. Then change the selected item in the combobox labeled Default Document View from Split View to Source View.
When I first changed the default I didn't think it worked; changing the default will not overwrite the settings saved for the last document view you were in for a particular file. The only way I found to have the default applied was to just wipe out my .suo file for the solution and close visual studio. Deleting the .suo file and closing and re-opening the solution didn't work. I had to delete the file and close visual studio, open visual studio back up, and reload the solution.
The .suo file is hiding in a hidden folder called ".vs" inside the solution folder. I initially just renamed it .suo.bak just in case something happened that I didn't like, but once I reloaded the solution and everything was fine I deleted it.

Ctrl-Tab behavior in Visual Studio 2012

Question: Is there a way to make "ctrl + tab" behavior the same in VS2012 as it used to be in VS2010?
Specifically, I noticed that when you hold control and hit tab a few times, the list on the screen now ALSO includes windows that you wouldn't normally care about (much less want to switch focus to) such as: "Find Results 1", "Error List", and "Output".
These are those standard windows you typically have positioned at the bottom of your Visual Studio environment. Before, in VS2010, these types of items would not be included in the list. It was simply and easy to Ctrl-Tab to only the documents you had open. I use this feature quite a lot in order to quickly navigate amongst open files.
But now in VS2012, when you hit Ctrl-Tab and suddenly your focus is down in the error list.... its like.... what were they thinking?? You have to hit tab again to get past these useless choices, which just slows me down. If anyone knows a way to turn off this horrible new "feature", please let me know! :)
This does not happen normally.
You probably docked those windows as documents rather than as tool windows.
To check whether that's true, try docking a regular document window to the side; if you can't, that would mean that you have a vertical document split.
To fix it, undock those windows, then re-dock them using the lowest arrow.

Is the Visual Studio 2012 RC Diff Utility Compare-Only?

I swear that in earlier versions of the preview/beta/whatever I was not only able to view the difference between two files, but also merge/update. Now I'm looking at a diff window and as far as I can tell there is no way to move lines from left to right, or right to left.
The window has a "Help" link at the bottom, leading to this page which, unfortunately has no coverage of any kind of merge. The only way I can do it at the moment is to manually copy and paste, or type the text on the left into the pane on the right.
Did Microsoft remove these features opting for a "compare-only" diff utility?
Are these tools available somewhere I'm not looking?
Is it possible my installation is corrupted? Can anyone confirm that they can not only compare, but also update using the RC.
The compare tool (I believe) doesn't have any merge options. However, if you right-click on a file in source control explorer and go to Branching & Merging > Merge you can perform a baseless merge between any two files (you have to browse for the file), and resolve conflicts within the merge tool. Hope that helps.

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