How to disable region collapsing or expand ALL regions in Visual Studio VB.NET?

Question

In Visual Studio C# (2008), Ctrl+M+L expand all the regions.

There's also a setting in menu:

Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> C# -> Advanced

to not collapse during file open. I see no equivalents in VB.NET.

Is there a way to expand all the regions, not just the one which has focus in VB.NET?

Or a macro or add-in that does it? I just hate not being able to see all the code.

I reset the settings and it's still not working. It works in C# but not vb.net. The only thing working in vb.net is collapsing/expanding the region the cusrosr is on via ctril-M-M. I have read posts on the web about others having the same issue like this one although it pertains to VS 2005. [http://www.eggheadcafe.com/forumarchives/NETVisualBasic/Oct2005/post24342618.asp](http://www.eggheadcafe.com/forumarchives/NETVisualBasic/Oct2005/post24342618.asp) This solution worked for me which involves using a Macro. (If someone created a macro, then the problem is real. I am sure region functionality — Tony_Henrich, Jul 09 '09 at 19:24
This: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shanewho.IHateRegions#overview — CAD bloke, Nov 23 '17 at 22:43
This: https://github.com/fsdsabel/ExpandRegions/releases (others extensions are abandoned/did not seem to work in 2019) — David, Oct 07 '20 at 12:39

score 28 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 26 '19 at 04:54

28

In Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 there is an option for deactivating collapsing (called 'outlining mode').

You can find it under:

Text-Editor->Basic->VB Specific

and then uncheck "Enable outlining mode".

But you will then lose the feature for collapse/expand at all.

edited Sep 26 '19 at 04:54

J. Scott Elblein

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answered Jan 07 '14 at 10:02

Sebastian

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For C# developers this can be found under `Text Editor` -> `C#` -> `Advanced` -> `Enter outlining mode when files open`. Uncheck this option and regions will be disabled. – Jan_V Feb 19 '15 at 13:20
9

Unfortunately you can't seem to use 'outlining mode' _without_ having it all collapsed by default. – Nyerguds May 12 '15 at 07:19

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 24 '20 at 20:45

If you are willing to remove regions you can try this:

Ctrl+F

Quick Replace
Find Options
Use: Regular Expressions

Find What:

^\s*#(end)?region.*$

Replace with:

[leave replace box empty]

Explanation:

^ - Match the start of a line
\s* - Match zero or more whitespace characters
# - Match one # character
(end)? - Optionally match the string end
region - Match the string region
.* - Match zero or more of any other characters
$ - Match the end of the line

This will effectively find all #region or #endregion lines, whether they are indented or not, and whether they have description text after them or not.

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 26 '19 at 00:38

7

In the Edit Menu, the Outlining submenu, you have all the options. Including Toggle All Outlining (Ctrl+M+L by default).

Maybe your key mappings were altered.

If you so desire, you can even select menu:

Edit -> Outlining -> Stop Outlining

edited Sep 26 '19 at 00:38

J. Scott Elblein

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answered Jul 09 '09 at 17:50

jvanderh

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The corresponding commands to change the shortcuts are `Edit.ToggleAllOutlining` and `Edit.StopOutlining` – bugybunny Nov 28 '18 at 08:26

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 19:57

3

In VB.Net, do a Search and Replace and select Use Hidden and Use Regex:

Replace:

^.*\#(end)*(:Wh)*region.*\n

With:

answered Mar 09 '11 at 19:57

John Cruz

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works with c# aswell, http://www.brianschmitt.com/2010/01/clear-visual-studio-regions.html – quadroid Dec 12 '14 at 11:46

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

2

I wrote an extension to do this (and more), and it works for VB and C#. See this answer for more info:

Hiding the regions in Visual Studio

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jun 03 '11 at 00:50

NotDan

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 26 '19 at 01:48

1

That's pretty odd. The default profile settings for VB.Net and C# should bind the outlining functions to Ctrl+M, Ctrl+L combos.

It's possible that your profile is in a weird state. Try resetting your profile to VB.Net settings and see if that fixes the problem.

Tools → Import / Export Settings → Reset All Settings → VB.Net Profile

edited Sep 26 '19 at 01:48

J. Scott Elblein

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answered Jul 09 '09 at 18:11

JaredPar

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score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 01 '13 at 11:02

1

Once I changed:

#Region Form Level Events
#End Region

To (note the addition of quotes):

#Region "Form Level Events"
#End Region

The minus signed appeared and I was able to collapse/expand Regions.

edited Aug 01 '13 at 11:02

Richard Ev

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answered Jun 14 '13 at 16:37

Scott Kaiser

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score -3 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 04 '14 at 20:36

I came up with this trick:

Ctrl+F

Quick Replace
Find:

#Region

Search in: current document (or entire project or wherever you need to expand regions)
Search in hidden text

Then press Return and keep it pressed until VS notify the search is endend. As a result all your '#region's have been expanded in very few seconds.

How to disable region collapsing or expand ALL regions in Visual Studio VB.NET?

8 Answers8