In the past, finding things deep in the IDE has been a challenge. Visual Studio 2012 introduces search abilities at virtually every level of the product. Perhaps the biggest change is the introduction of Quick Launch (CTRL + Q) which specifically addresses how to dig inside Visual Studio to find features you need. Let’s take a look.
Quick Launch: Basic Use
You can find Quick Launch in the upper right corner of the IDE:
The most basic scenario for using Quick Launch is finding an item that you have forgotten (or don’t know) the location of. Let’s say you are interested in something deep in the menu system like viewing your white space. You know what it’s called but can’t remember where it is at. Just press CTRL + Q and enter the word white:
All searches are contains operations so the results will show anything that has the word white anywhere in it. The results are grouped into categories and you simply either select the item from the list using your keyboard, mouse or, if there is a keyboard shortcut listed, take advantage of the shortcut. In this case, you could press CTRL+R, CTRL+W to show the white space and then go on with your work.
Categories
There are four categories that your results will fall into when using Quick Launch. Let’s take a look at each of these categories.
QR: 