# Smart Tags and Sane Keyboard Shortcuts

**URL:** <https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902>\
**Category:** blog\
**Created:** [February 2, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902 "2006-02-02T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/1 "2006-02-02T00:00:00Z")

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I constantly rename variables. It's probably the single most frequent refactoring activity I do. And that's why I love [Visual Studio 2005's built-in Smart Tags feature](http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/2005/overview/productivity/#smarttags).

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/02/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts.html](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/02/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts.html)

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**Author:** ![kagevf](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/k/ce73a5/32.png) [@kagevf](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/kagevf)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/2 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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I use ALT+1 and ALT+2 for View Find 1 and View Find 2 respectively.

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**Author:** ![Matthijsv](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Matthijsv](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Matthijsv)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/3 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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I use F2 for renaming identifiers. It’s the default hotkey used by ReSharper.

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**Author:** ![MartyT](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@MartyT](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/MartyT)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/4 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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Thank you! I knew there had to be a hotkey for that function, but I could not find it. I didn’t know what those smart tags were called, or the associated operation that showed them. Now I can re-map the shortcut to Alt+/ like I did for ReSharper and it’s smart tag-like functionality.

As for other short cuts, I generally pretty happy with the default ones in Visual Studio. Usually it’s just a matter of me knowing the shortcut, and then forcing myself to use it until it becomes habit. Generally the ones I use the most are F5, Ctrl+Shift+B, Ctrl+Shift+F9(clear breakpoints), F10, F11.

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**Author:** ![AlbertD](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AlbertD](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/AlbertD)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/5 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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“Ctrl+Alt+Knee” equivalent keystroke are really painfull for common tasks 🙂

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**Author:** ![IanG](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@IanG](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/IanG)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/6 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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I reckon there’s at least one piano player working on the VS team…

I studied the piano for about 12 years, starting from the age of 5. I think it had a positive impact on my typing abilities.

I don’t find the Shift+Alt+F10 combination particularly challenging, and I suspect that’s why.

So the answer is simple - study the piano intensively. And make sure you start age 5.

Failing that, now that ThinkPads reputedly have a Windows key (thanks, presumably, to IBM no longer owning them), we can start to petition for even more shift keys. Bring on Escape+Meta+Alt+Coke-bottle+Shift. (That’s left coke-bottle - the full one rather than the empty one.)

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**Author:** ![RBL](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/r/f08c70/32.png) [@RBL](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/RBL)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/7 "2006-02-03T00:00:00Z")

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Dude, use Quickeys, and the world is at your fingertips.

Products - QuicKeys for Windows - Overview  
[http://quickeys.com/products/qkw.html](http://quickeys.com/products/qkw.html)

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**Author:** ![Tim\_Jarvis](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Tim\_Jarvis](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Tim_Jarvis)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/8 "2006-02-04T00:00:00Z")

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if you like that, you should definitly check out the refactorings and sync edit features of Borlands developer studio product.

Cheers Tim.

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**Author:** ![LorenP](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/l/97f17d/32.png) [@LorenP](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/LorenP)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/9 "2006-02-04T00:00:00Z")

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Get a keyboard with the function keys on the left and shift-alt-f10 is no problem to type.

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**Author:** ![Haacked](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Haacked](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Haacked)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/10 "2006-02-06T00:00:00Z")

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Study the piano since age 5 or sit for a moment, meditate, and channel the spirit of Ian Griffiths.

I doubt there’s much that Ian finds challenging. 😉

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**Author:** ![Krishna1](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Krishna1](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Krishna1)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/11 "2006-02-19T00:00:00Z")

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For the example mentioned above(Providing smarttags which basically asks whether the variable names should be renamed), why not the IDE just go ahead and change the instances of the variable instead of asking the user?

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**Author:** ![PhilipT](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@PhilipT](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/PhilipT)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/12 "2010-02-06T00:00:00Z")

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I always remap File/Close in Visual Studio to be Ctrl-W. That’s what it is in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, and gVim, among others. If it’s a tabbed windowing environment, I expect that shortcut to work.

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:40am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/smart-tags-and-sane-keyboard-shortcuts/902/13 "2025-01-07T06:40:06Z")

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