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Anyone know of anything in VisualStudio to make your life easier when you have a bunch of files open that are named the same thing? Pretty often I'll have a bunch of files open with the same name and I don't know of any way distinguish them so I just have to go through the solution explorer. Is there a setting to add hover text for the full path on this stupid thing?

alt text http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2094/91544289.png

This isn't quite the same question as Visual Studio - tips for managing work on many open files

I know ctrl-tab gives the full path, but it is still a little cumbersome as you have to arrow around to see the full path, and when there are lots of files open it isn't really any faster than using solution explorer.

Community
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JeremyWeir
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  • Wow, someone else who's annoyed by this - I thought I was crazy. Finding out which view file belongs to which controller while open is annoying (hover mouse as someone answered). I've gott screen space, would be nice if conflicting file names was prefixed with folder name until they differed ^^ – Oskar Duveborn Apr 24 '09 at 17:37
  • The image in the question is broken – Andrey Aug 07 '13 at 18:40
  • In VS2019 you can use `Ctrl`+`[` , `S` to find the current file in solution explorer (same as the Resharper tip below) – Nir Feb 14 '23 at 09:17

4 Answers4

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I mouse over the tab and it shows me the file directory.

Also since you are using Resharper you can use this keyboard shortcut and it will highlight the file in solution explorer.

Alt+Shift+L

Since you are using Resharper you can use its navigation instead of Visual Studio's. In this example you are looking for Default.aspx

Ctrl+Shift+N

That shortcut will bring up its file search screen. Type "Def" and pick the one based on which folder you want.

Jeff Atwood
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Brendan Enrick
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Try right-clicking the empty space next to a tab just above the code window. You will see some options for a new "tab group", and you can choose horizontal or vertical.

If you have enough monitor space, you should be able to keep your similarly named files in different areas.

Good luck!

Mike
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If you hit Ctrl+Tab it will bring open a document list with preview and the full file path.

BarrettJ
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  • Quote from the initial question "I know ctrl-tab gives the full path, but it is still a little cumbersome as you have to arrow around to see the full path, and when there are lots of files open it isn't really any faster than using solution explorer." – Brendan Enrick Apr 24 '09 at 18:30
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If possible at all, avoid having duplicate names. Not only that navigation might be confusing, it might get even worse.

I have experienced rather strange behavior with duplicate file names within the same solution, both with Visual Studio (e.g. when debugging) and especially with third party tools, which were not able to distinguish between the files.

It seemed to me that this is especially a problem with resource file names and project names.

Dirk Vollmar
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