Top 10 Visual Assist features to improve productivity

Whole Tomato Software’s Visual Assist is an add-on tool for C++ developers that use Visual Studio.

Here’s a list of the top 10 features that Whole Tomato recommend can help to improve productivity:

1. Open any file (Shift+Alt+O)

Find and open any file using a simple dialog and some search tokens.

2. Find any symbol (Shift+Alt+S)

Find any symbol within a dialog that supports similar filtering.

3. Go to implementation (Alt+G)

Identify definitions and declarations, and open a menu when multiple targets are available.

4. Go to things that are related (Shift+Alt+G)

Go to anywhere that is related to the symbol, jump into a hierarchy or directly to vase or derived class.

5. Open corresponding file (Alt+O)

Open the file most related to the active document.

6. Look for references (Shift+Alt+F)

A faster, more powerful and complete reference finder – you can even clone results windows to run additional finds without overwriting initial results.

7. Quick actions and refactoring menu (Shift+Alt+O)

Use features applicable to the current context and experiment with symbols of different types, white space, lines and expressions. Use VA Snippets to refactor and generate code demands. Furthermore, disable floating buttons.

8. List methods within the file (Alt+M)

Use a simple drop-down of classes and method to navigate your current file, and filter using the strings.

9. Rename feature (Shift+Alt+R)

Visual Assist’s Rename feature is faster and more powerful than Visual Studio – rename the definition and declaration of symbols, references to them, and even occurrences in comments and strings.

10. Use hashtags

Add hashtags to comments and navigate among them via toll window (Shift+Alt+H) or the go-to command. The hashtags act as bookmarks and tasks that move alongside your code.

So there we have it, 10 tips to optimise your productivity when using Visual Assist alongside Visual Studio.

Give them a try and let us know how you get on.

Grey Matter is a Whole Tomato Software Reseller Partner, if you’d like a free trial or would like to discuss pricing, please get in touch.