Keystroke/hotkey/shortcut to expand Area/Iteration path in TFS? - excel

I'm doing a lot of work with work items, and while I'm using Tfs 2010 aka VsAlm 2010, this has been something that's bugged me ever since the first release of Tfs. When creating new work items, I don't really want to switch back and forth between my mouse and keybaord 203948203984 times; I'd really much rather just enter it entirely sans-mouse using the keyboard. This is mostly possible, however the Area Path and Iteration Path fields present an obstacle, both from the Team Explorer client and in Excel.
This obstacle is that nothing I've tried will open up the treeview for arrow-key navigation. I would hope that this would function like other tree views, where up and down move up and down, and left/right perform expansion and collapse functions on nodes with children. However, nothing I've tried (enter, tab, space, ctrl-space, F2, etc) will open that up for me; and consequently I'm relegated to typing out the entire path or to switching to my mouse, which really slows me down at times.
Is there something I'm missing? Hard-core, veteran TFS users: is there a better way?

You can use Alt + ↓.

Related

In vscode, how to put editor regions inside tabs, and not the other way around?

I've been trying Visual Studio Code for a few days, and it's the first editor that I used in years that makes me feel I could switch from my beloved vim.
Now, it's hard to get used to new habits when you have years of muscle memory, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. There's one thing that's bugging me, though, and I could not find a way to get around: it's the fact that editor regions and tabs are "swapped". Let me explain:
In vscode, you define editor regions by splitting your screen, then each region can contain as many tabs as you want.
My problem is, that does not fit my workflow. Here's what my workflow used to be with vim, where regions are inside a single set of tabs (I mainly work with Django):
In a first tab, I've split my editor in half and I'm editing my models.py and forms.py side by side.
In a second tab, I've split the editor in half, I'm editing my views.py on the left hand side, and the right hand side is again split horizontaly, allowing me to edit multiple templatetags files.
In a third tab, I'm editing my main template, and I don't split the editor since the file may contain very long lines.
In a fourth tab, I'm editing several html files and the editor is split multiple times.
Etc.
That way, I can very quickly go to edit my models, then my views, then the templates, and start over in quick iterations.
With vscode, where the tabs are inside the fixed regions, not so much.
So my question is, what solution could I use? Am I missing a big feature here? Are there any extension that would allow me to get my old workflow back?
I'm also open to suggestions about new workflows.
As #romainl pointed out: the workflow is different, it doesn't work that way with VS Code (and I know, I'm a vim user, too).
The best you can get that is vaguely close to what you're used to is to consider VS Code windows as you did with vim tabs.
To give you an idea using your example:
You open a VS Code window and open side by side models.py and forms.py
You hit Ctrl+Shift+N (or Command+Shift+N on a Mac) and open a new window. There you open your views.py on the left and split the right one horizontally for the templates.
You open a new window again and repeat.
This way you can switch between different layouts with Alt+Tab
(or Command+Tab).
You could speed this up a bit by saving different workspace files for different files that you want open, because I think (not 100% sure) that saving the workspace also saves the layout.
There's a couple of annoying things with this approach though:
If you have multiple windows open in general (say, a browser, slack app and so on), they'll also appear in the list when you try to switch.
I'm not sure if the open folder will be remembered when opening a new window, but you can work around that by saving the workspace and opening it.
It's annoying but at least there's already a feature request about this ( https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/41486 )

Creating a floating menu that pops like normal menu but appears at mouse position

Some context
I've recently switched to ubuntu budgie (from unity), and I am really tired of the Plank/panel menu combo. I cannot find a setting that suits me, because depending on my screen setup, there's always something in the wrong place.
I am literally unable to show the menu on certain edges if I activate auto-hide, and if I don't activate it, it's not nice at all, to the point that I have removed the plank thing altogether. (Am I having strange bugs on this OS, or is it really messy?)
My idea
With great frustrations come new ideas. I thought again about one I had in the past. I would like to have a circle menu that pops around my mouse cursor when I press a given key combination (very much the kind of thing you would find in some games).
The main use case is to get "pined" application shortcuts easily when I need them, but perhaps other things would fit well with them (commands ...).
Questions
So my questions are:
Does such a thing already exist?
If it doesn't, is it difficult to realize? (How much time, complexity, ...)
What tools/libraries are needed for such a project? I know I'll find plenty of explanations on the gnome developer website but I could really use some more help.
Since you mention a buggy behaviour on Plank, depending on the screen configuration, I suspect you are suffering from this bug. In short: Plank's returned values for the space it needs are not always correct in multi monitor setup.
A neat option to replace at least part of the functionality is Ulauncher, by default called from a shortcut, but you could trigger it from anything that is capable of running its command.
Since Ulauncher's window simply identifies in the window list, you can easily write a script to move it to the current mouse position.
In case you'd need any help in that, just leave a comment.
Not sure if you are also referring to quick access of the window list, but for that you could use the Window Previews applet, or even the Workspace Overview applet, so life without Plank is possible.

Search between 2 files in Visual Studio 2017

So I have recently switched from VS2010 (which just kept crashing at least every day) to VS Community 2017, and one of the things I used to do basically all the time, which is to select the name of a function/variable in one file, ctrl+F it then switch to a different file and search for it there, I just can't do anymore because of that stupid quicksearch bar.
However, the reflex to do that is so deeply ingrained by now, that I often end up opening the quick search in one file anyway, then switching file, then facepalming with a grunt as I go back to the previous file, ctrl+c, then back, then ctrl+f, ctrl+v, then enter. You can see how that can get frustrating with 20+ occurences a day. (yes, I swap-search through files a lot. It's how the projects I work on are designed, and it really worked just fine before they prevented me from doing that one very important little task quickly. Ugh!)
I have searched all around for a solution to this, but the common "Fix" is to map ctrl+F to the "search all files". It doesn't do what I need to do. If I switch the "search in" option back to "current document" (I know which file I'm looking into! I don't want to look through ALLL open files, or the entire project, just that one other file that's not the one I have open right this second), IT GOES BACK TO THE QUICK SEARCH BAR!!!
I can't be the only one with that search-switch file-find workflow. Is there an extension I missed that would fix this? Some kind of hacky registry modification that would give me back my good ol' search dialog without that annoying quick search? (Seriously, I had the power tools or whatever extension that had this in VS 2010, and had turned it off literally after the first time I used it cuz I hated it). Or! Hey, maybe something that'll at least keep that little box open/preserve the search value between files.
The time I spend having to go back and copy instead of right up search is making the switch to vs2017 almost irellevant vs the once a day crashing of vs 2010.
Thanks guys!

2 spaces indentation in google Docs

To prepare an exam, I have to learn coding using google docs rather than using an IDE. It may seem idiot or impratical but the teacher really insists on that. It seems that is the same thing as Google interviews for example...
So far, I really got used with using two spaces indentation (I hate using tab indendation). And I want to learn how can I do that quickly in Google docs. Is there a shortcut or a "tips" (add-on?) for that?
For example, if you have an "if-condition" starting at the position number 4 and you want to move to the following line, it can be really convenient to have the cursor position at 4. Then, you'll add two spaces to start your block at position number 6. (ALL the if block will have at least position 6). But in Docs, when you move to the following line, the cursor always start at the beginning of the line except if you use the tab indentation. And it's really shitting if you want to indent your code properly...
Do you have a solution for that please ?
I was facing the same problem.
To write Python code in google docs, my solution is:
Switch off auto-capitalization, auto-correction and smart quotes. And other auto-substitutions so that you may write code without docs like formatting.
To do this: Tools> Preferences and uncheck the above items. Screen shots attached below.
Set tab to two spaces.
Right-click on ruler on top of page. Add left-tab stop, an arrow will appear, move this tab stop to 2 spaces from left of ruler. Try adding tab in the current line and if the tab size is OK, save this formatting.
To save:
Format > Paragraph Styles > Normal Text > Update 'Normal Text' to match.
Last, to add color(synatx highlight), you may use 'code blocks extension'.
Click install.
Now, write code in docs, select the code in google doc, click on:
Add-ons > Code Block. A pop up opens up.
Choose language : 'python' for me.
Choose theme: 'atom-one-dark'
click Format.
The code looks much like IDE, and writing more code is easier too.
While I understand that sometimes a point can be made by making students do things in a way that might not seem logical, this one doesn't make any sense to me.
Students don't learn anything useful by pressing space twice instead of letting an editor or IDE do it for them.
I wonder, is it because he/she wants it delivered in Google Docs or because they want you coding that way? If it's the latter, you won't have to hide your workaround.
I can only suggest using a good text editor, I always use the excellent and free Notepad++, and copy and paste it to and from Google Docs. Your instructor will never know. In fact, I'd be hunting around to see of there was a way to access your code files directly in Google Docs from Notepad++, or to auto-sync a folder with Google docs.
Notepad++ has syntax colouring - which will save your life - and can be set to indent with tabs or spaces to whatever indent width you specify. If not using an IDE, I only use Notepad++.
Your instructor sounds like some I had, people who cross a line from being quirky but with a point to make to just being a dick. There is absolutely no point in telling a student to code only in Google docs. Google docs is a great thing, I love it, but it is by no stretch of the imagination a coding tool.
(I see that this is an aged thread, but I'll respond in case someone else with a similar issue - like this year's class for that course - comes looking for an answer.)
You could try (ab)using bulleted lists:
Insert a bulleted list
Right click on the bullet, select "More bullets..."
In the "Symbol" selection list, choose "Format & whitespace" and select one of the whitespace options as bullet char
Repeat for as many levels (of bullet sub-lists) as you think you may need in your program
Fix indentation to match whatever feels best for you
Every time you need to write a nested block, you will have to press "tab" only once, then bullet list level is kept and the indentation with it. To go back to the outer block, just press shift-tab.
However, IMHO it doesn't worth the trouble. Generally, interview question solutions are not that large and hitting spacebar a couple of times is not much of an overhead.
It's somewhat cumbersome but you can set as many tab stops as you want, and docs will move nested tabs to the next tab stop as well. For example:
You can add tab stops by right clicking on that tab bar where you want the tab stop to be and clicking Add left tab stop. You'll want to have all text in the document selected if you want the tab stop to apply everywhere.

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.

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