Reference Highlighting in Visual Studio 2010

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There is a nice feature in Visual Studio 2010. It’s called Highlighting Reference.

How this feature works is when you are working on your code in the editor and click on a symbol (class, object, methods, properties, variables), then all instances of the symbol are automatically highlighted. This makes it very easy to locate where a symbol has been used in that document.

You can use CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW (move down) or CTRL+SHIFT+UP ARROW (move up), to navigate through the highlighted instances of that symbol.

Here’s an example that highlights all instances of View() on the page when i click on any one of the references.

If for some reason, you do not see the highlighting, make sure that the feature is turned on by going to Tools > Options > Text Editor > C# > Advanced

Change Highlighting Reference Color

If you are not happy with the color used for highlighting, then you have an option to change it. To do so, go to Tools > Options > Environment > Font and Colors > Make sure ‘Text Editor’ is the chosen option in the ‘Show settings for’ section > Choose ‘Highlighted Reference’ in the Display Items List Box and use the Custom button to change the foreground and background color.

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, Developer Technologies MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) is the founder and contributor for DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He is the Chief Editor of a Developer Magazine called DNC Magazine. He has also authored two Books - 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls. and The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

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