Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

Chapter 1 Exploring the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment 23

2. While holding down the CTRL key, press TAB repeatedly to cycle through the active
   files until the file you want is highlighted.
   To cycle through the files in the reverse direction, hold down CTRL+SHIFT and press
   TAB. (If you want this to look even more impressive, open another window or two so
   that the cycle order is more apparent .)


3. While holding down the CTRL key, press the arrow keys to cycle through both the
   active files and the active tools.
   You can also select an active file (or tool) by clicking its name.


4. When you’re finished with the IDE Navigator, release the CTRL key.

The last selected item in the IDE Navigator will become active.

Tip To cycle through active tools without opening the IDE Navigator, you can also press

ALT+F7. SHIFT+ALT+F7 lets you cycle through the tools in the reverse direction.

Opening a Web Browser Within Visual Studio

A handy feature in Visual Studio is the ability to open a simple Web browser within the

development environment. The browser appears as a tabbed document window in the IDE,

so it takes up little space but can be opened immediately when needed. You could open

a stand-alone Web browser (such as Internet Explorer) and keep it nearby on the Windows

taskbar, but running a Web browser within Visual Studio makes examining Web sites and

copying data into Visual Studio even easier. Try using the Visual Studio Web browser now.

Open the Visual Studio Web browser

1. Click the Other Windows submenu on the View menu, and then click the Web Browser
   command.
   The Web Browser window appears, as shown on the next page.
   The browser is a tabbed document window by default, but you can change it into
   a floating window or a docked window by right-clicking the window title bar and then
   clicking the Float or Dock command.

Tip You can change the default page that appears in the Web Browser window by

changing the setting in the Options dialog box. Open the Options dialog box by clicking

Options on the Tools menu. Select the Show All Settings check box, expand Environment,

and then click Web Browser. Change the Home Page setting to a Uniform Resource

Locator (URL) that you want for the default page.