Quick Open File for Visual Studio 2008

About

New: This plugin is now also available for Visual Studio 2010 RC: click here.

Quick Open File for Visual Studio 2008 is a small plugin that tries to simulate the feature known to Eclipse users as Open Resource. This plugin gives Visual Studio equivalently quick method for opening any solution file.

Although in Eclipse this feature is invoked by Ctrl+Shift+R, this plugin is invoked by pressing the sequence Ctrl+K, Ctrl+O (because the former shortcut key is already taken in Visual Studio by default). The default shortcut key can be changed by the user of course. The plugin is independent of programming language and solution/project type you are working on. It indexes all files from the entire solution that are accessible via the Solution Explorer. When it finds the desired file it opens the file in the default editor assigned for that file type.

The plugin searches for the given substring inside file names. You can also use wildcards (?, *) in the search. The list of matched file names is updated on the fly as you type. Opening the file is as easy as hitting Enter when you've found the desired file.

New in version 1.1: Press Shift+Enter to open the selected file using other than the default editor. This will bring up the Open With dialog where you can choose the desired editor.

Usage

After successful installation the plugin will add a menu command: Edit > Find and Replace > Quick Open File. The command is also accessible via the predefined shortcut key sequence: Ctrl+K, Ctrl+O. You can change the shortcut key preference any time via Tools > Customize... > Keyboard... The command's name is Edit.QuickOpenFile.

After pressing the shortcut key combo the Quick Open File tool window is displayed. Now just type few letters from the file name you whish to open. The plugin will search the entire solution for files that contains the typed string. I.e. the plugin will not only search for file names that start with the given string but also file names that contain the string in the middle. You can also use wildcards for more complex search patterns: ? matches any character, * matches any substring.

The list of matched file names is updated as you type. Use up and down arrow keys to move within the list and press Enter to open the selected file.

New in version 1.1: Press Shift+Enter to open the selected file using other than the default editor. This will bring up the Open With dialog where you can choose the desired editor. The same can be done using the Open button or right clicking any file from the list and choosing either Open or Open With.