Visual Studio Hacks, $24.95
by James Avery
O'Reilly, 2005
478 pages
Examples in C# and VB .NET
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596008473/larkware-20
I've been using Visual Studio .NET just about every day since some time during the original beta period, before .NET was a shipping product, way back when we were all still running around like pundits with our heads cut off trying to figure out just what the heck this .NET thing was (and we weren't helped by the Microsoft marketeers slapping the .NET label on every piece of software that sat in one place for ten minutes, but I digress). I've even written a few big fat books that showed novices how to use Visual Studio for various tasks in excruciating detail. So, you know - I got to about page 6 of this book before I learned something new.
If you're not familiar with the Hacks series, the idea is to reclaim the word "hack" to its original notion of finding a clever way to do something. And that's just what this book is full of: clever ways to do things with Visual Studio. Avery (and a whole raft of contributors) range all over this huge IDE. You'll learn about ways to organize projects and solutions, and ways to go in and muck around in the raw project and solution files when you absolutely have to. You'll get tips for making good use of all the various editors built into this environment. You'll see what you can do with add-ins, and learn about a batch of useful (and free!) add-ins (many of which you will have seen here over the years if you were paying attention). You'll see how to use Visual Studio as a documentation tool, how to do clever things with Server Explorer, how to use Visual Studio Tools for Office, and how to do some nifty debugging. This isn't a comprehensive guide to Visual Studio (no book this short could deliver that), but it does show off an awful lot of powerful capabilities. You're pretty unlikely to have seen them all.
The book covers all versions from Visual Studio .NET 2002 through Visual Studio 2005, though obviously given where we are in the product cycle you can expect some of the 2005 details to change. Fortunately there is an accompanying Web site where Avery promises to post updates, add-ins, and other goodies. If you want a taste of the book's contents, hop on over to the book's page at the O'Reilly site, where you can download five of the 100 hacks that you'll find in the book.
There are of course other ways to work with .NET code besides Visual Studio. You can use SharpDevelop or X-Develop or even Visual Notepad. But if you're using Visual Studio, and want to get the most out of your tools, then this is a book you really ought to check out.