As I was working today, I noticed that I don’t know much keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio for Mac. So I’ve decided to collect all of them, add some unknown and share them with you. At the end of this article, you can find a link to the pdf in which all of them are written. One more thing to add before we begin. In Visual Studio for Mac preferences, under Key Bindings section, you can choose the Scheme of key bindings. You can select the scheme from this list.

This post will be about the first one: “Visual Studio”


Find references

Sometimes you just need to find the references of the specified object. In this case, simply press

Cmd + Shift + R or Shift + F12 

and this will happen:

Go to declaration

Whenever you want to go to the object/type declaration press

Cmd + mouse click or F12 or Cmd+D

Toggle breakpoint

When having a cursor in a line just press

Cmd + \ or F9 

so the breakpoint will appear.

Enable/Disable breakpoint

In case you want to disable/enable this breakpoint simply press

Cmd + Alt + / or Cmd + F9

Step into

When the breakpoint is hit and you want to step into the definition simply press

Shift + Cmd + I

Step over

Maybe you want to go to the next line of code? No problem

Shift + Cmd + O / F10

Step out

Do you want to step out of function? No problem:

Shift + Cmd + U

Continue debugging

Or maybe you just want to continue the program without further debugging?

Cmd + enter

So let’s imagine your code get’s wrongly formatted. As long as C# code is not that big problem, wrongly formatted
XAML files can be pretty painful.


Format document

So whenever you want to format your code just press

Ctrl + I

Indent/Unindent section

You want to indent/unindent the section? Easy

Cmd + ]

Unindent section

Cmd + [

Rename

Whenever you want to rename the field/variable/property/whatever and do it once so it will auto-update elsewhere.
Simply press:

Cmd + R

Toggle line comment

When you want to either format one line of code, or a whole block of code then simply select the code and press

Cmd + /

Toggle fold

This one is simply complicated but works fine. You can still edit this shortcut!

Cmd + Shift + Alt + left arrow


Change file

When quickly navigating between opened files simply press

Ctrl + tab

and navigate through the list with Tab button. If you want to cancel the selection press ESC

Close all files

How many times did you have a situation when too many files were opened? In this case, when you want to close
them all simply press.

Cmd + Shift + W

Close file

On the other hand when you want to close only one file:

Cmd + W

Add files to project

That’s kind nice one, as opening the context menu, and choosing “Add files” is quite time-consuming. In case
you want to add files to project, select the folder to which you want to add the file and

Alt + Cmd + A

Build project

Just a shortcut for building a project.

Cmd + K / Shift + F6

Build all

Similar to the one above but builds the whole solution

Cmd + B / F6

Clean

Clean the project

Cmd + Shift + K

Start debugging

Just for a quick start the project🙂

Cmd + Enter / F5

Quick fix

When having an error or warning simply click on it and press

Alt + Enter

Find

Just a standard find option in the document

Cmd + F

Find next

When having search bar opened

Cmd + G / F3

Show the intellisense

When you want to show the intellisense

Ctrl + Space

Go to line

That’s interesting on. Who knows to which line he want’s to go?! :O

Cmd + L

Replace in files

Another way of changing the names in files but in my opinion more dangerous than
Ctrl + R

Cmd + Alt + F


Rectangle selection

That’s quite a good tool, but it has limitations. Nice to use it with modifiers.

hold Alt+ select with a mouse

Move line of code

Sometimes you just want to move the line of code 2 lines up/down. You can probably cut the whole line, go to
the chosen place and paste. You can do it quicker.

hold Alt + navigate up/down with up/down arrow

Go to the beginning/end of the line

These are nice mac shortcuts for navigating through texts. Works on Mac, not only in VS for Mac.

Cmd + left arrow/right arrow

Go to the beginning/end of a document

Similar to the one above but navigates vertically.

Cmd + arrow down

Two editor column

That’s something for people who have big displays and like to have as much code as possible on their’s display.

Cmd+Alt+2

One editor column

And that’s for getting back to the standard view 🙂

Cmd+Alt+1

Zoom in/zoom out

In case you have a prelection/you want to show your code on the display you might want to adjust the font size
by pressing

Cmd + “+” or ”-”


That’s almost all 🙂Besides the samples about, I’ve also created the .pdf file with all shortcuts in one place. You can download it from
here. If I missed something or if you know other useful shortcuts please let me know in comments!

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