The ASPX Edit Helper is an add-in for Visual Studio 2005 for those who like to type ASPX markup themselves instead of using the visual designer. It’s a very simple add-in but pretty handy if you prefer to type ASPX. (It also works with Visual Studio 2008.)

ASPX Edit Helper does just two things:

Fill in runat=”server” id=”random_id” when you type a server control (e.g., asp:Label).
Insert ASPX snippets when you type a short code.

Usage Type 1

Type <asp:Label and press Enter. The add-in will replace it with:

<asp:Label runat=”server” id=”asp_Label2943″ />

The add-in will also highlight the ID attribute value so you can immediately type a new ID for the control.

Alternatively, type <asp:Label></asp:Label> and press the Up or Down arrow.

Usage Type 2

Type a short code such as /lbl or /txt and press Enter. The add-in will replace it with the corresponding ASPX snippet:

<asp:Label runat=”server” id=”asp_Label2943″ />

<asp:TextBox runat=”server” id=”asp_TextBox2943″ />

The short codes and snippets are defined in the AspxEditHelperSnippets.xml file which you can crack open and modify as needed. The format for a short code must be a slash (/) followed by one or more regex word characters (\w+).

Video

You can see a brief intro video on ASPX Edit Helper at http://ardentdev.com/blog/aspxedithelper/aspxedithelper.html.