You can download all the code referenced in the book. The .zip file includes both the C# and VB.NET versions of the code.

— 1.0.1
*Updated Visualizer code for Beta 2

Download Here.

Reviews

“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.” — Larkware (Mike Gunderloy)

“Anyway, to be an A player, you must have this book on your bookshelf. We rarely give 5 fingers out of 5, because most books lack a needed component to be great. Some have great technical info, but is written in a very dry manner. Others are great to read, but I’ve read it before in the online help, only it wasn’t so amusing. This book has it all: the technical know how and the nice readable style. Thus it gets the highest grade.” — Robert Gelb (vbrad.com)

“Overall, this book is an excellent reference book for all levels of developer.” — Anand Narayanaswamy (ASPAlliance)

“If you spend a fair amount of time writing code in Visual Studio.NET, then Visual Studio Hacks will definitely improve your productivity in writing, debugging, and maintaining code. You’ll find everything from using (and the practical uses of) built-in features (such as the Clipboard ring) to in-depth explanations of downloadable add-ins.” — Alex Papdimoulis

“The book is enjoyable reading, intellectually stimulating and provides information that is practically relevant. There is insight from a number of different contributors, not just the primary author. While reading the book, I got ideas for other Hacks that I’ll be testing.” — Steve Carvajal (Amazon)

“I highly recommend this book. I believe that it is a must-have companion for Visual Studio. Anyone that is establishing their project’s IDE guidelines for their development team would be well-served by the material covered in this book. What a way to impress your boss.” — Blair Kennedy

You can buy the book from the following retailers. (Purchasing through these links helps support this site)

Buy From Amazon

Buy From Barnes and Noble

Q: What versions of Visual Studio does this book cover?
A:  This book includes hacks that cover Visual Studio .NET 2002, Visual Studio .NET 2003, and Visual Studio 2005. The books on Visual Studio 2005 are based on the beta 1 release.

Q: What is a freaking hack?
A: A hack is a clever way to solve a problem. It could be a tip, trick, or a tool… anything that is not neccesarily the convential way of solving a problem.

Following are some PDF samples from the book that should give you a good idea of what kind of hacks are included.

Hack 7: Make Pasting into Visual Studio Easier (PDF)
Hack 44: Speed Up Visual Studio (PDF)
Hack 49: Generate Strongly Typed DataSets (PDF)
Hack 64: Examine the Innards of Assemblies (PDF)
Hack 78: Launch Visual Studio from the Command Prompt (PDF)

Credits
Preface

Chapter 1. Master Projects and Solutions

1. Manage Projects and Solutions

2. Master Assembly and Project References

3. Organize Projects and Solutions

4. Hack the Project and Solution Files

5. Remove SourceSafe Bindings

Chapter 2. Master the Editor

6. Master the Clipboard

7. Make Pasting into Visual Studio Easier

8. Master IntelliSense

9. Master Regions

10. Add Guidelines to the Text Editor

11. Select the Best Editor

12. Customize Syntax Coloring

13. Edit the Most Recent File and Project Lists

14. Refactor Your Code

15. Use and Share Code Snippets

Chapter 3. Navigating Visual Studio

16. Take Control of Your Workspace

17. Find Files Quickly

18. Search Files Quickly

19. Search for Patterns in Your Files

20. Navigate Your Source Code

21. Never Forget a TODO Again

22. Hack the Mouse

23. Enhance the Tabs in Visual Studio

Chapter 4. Customizing Visual Studio

24. Create Your Own Shortcuts

25. Customize Menus and Toolbars

26. Create Custom Window Layouts

27. Customize the Toolbox

28. Package Your Toolbox Settings

29. Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions

30. Hack the Registry

31. Save and Move Your IDE Settings

32. Enable IntelliSense for HTML and XML Documents

33. Add an External Tool

34. Customize Your Project Build Process

35. Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results

Chapter 5. Debugging

36. Set Breakpoints

37. Troubleshoot Breakpoints

38. Customize Visual Studio’s Reaction to Exceptions

39. Debug Scripting Code

40. Debug SQL Server

41. Debug a Running Process

42. Debug a Failing Application

43. Write a Custom Visualizer

Chapter 6. Speed Hacks

44. Speed Up Visual Studio

45. Load Files from the Command Prompt

46. Master the Command Window

47. Build a Custom Tool

48. Extend the Application Configuration File

49. Generate Strongly Typed DataSets

50. Define Templates for Generating Code

51. Create a Macro

52. Generate Code with Macros

53. Create Connection Strings Quickly

54. Quickly Sign Assemblies

55. Update Project References Quickly

56. Automatically Add using and Imports Statements

57. Insert Commonly Used Code Automatically

58. Move Quickly Between Source Control Providers

Chapter 7. Help and Research

59. Get Help

60. Search the Internet from Visual Studio

61. Redirect Help to Google

62. Use P/Invoke with Ease

63. Examine the IL Generated by Your Code

64. Examine the Innards of Assemblies

65. Follow the Rules with FxCop

66. Generate Statistics on Your C# Code

67. Profile Heap Allocations

Chapter 8. Comments and Documentation

68. Master C# XML Comments

69. Create Comments Faster

70. Create XML Comments with VB.NET

71. Create Documentation from XML Comments

72. Integrate Your Own Documentation into Visual Studio

Chapter 9. Server Explorer Hacks

73. Access Performance Counters

74. Diagram and Modify a Database

75. Script Your Database

76. Enumerate Processes, Drives, Shares, and More

Chapter 10. Work with Visual Studio Tools

77. Master the Visual Studio Command Prompt

78. Launch Visual Studio from the Command Prompt

79. Stress Test Web Applications

80. Obfuscate Your Code

81. Generate Code from UML

82. Generate UML Design Documents from Code

Chapter 11. Visual Studio Tools for Office

83. Install Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003

84. Create a Command Bar in Word 2003

85. Display a Windows Form from Excel 2003

Chapter 12. Extending Visual Studio

86. Automate Visual Studio

87. Access Visual Studio from Standalone Applications

88. Create a File Template

89. Writing a Visual Studio Add-in

90. Find the Name of That Command Bar

91. Change the Icon for Your Add-in

Chapter 13. Enhancing Visual Studio

92. Manage Add-ins

93. Run Unit Tests Inside Visual Studio

94. Spellcheck Your Code and Comments

95. View an Outline of Your Controls

96. Blog Code from Visual Studio

97. Collapse and Expand Your Code

98. Combine the Visual Studio Command Prompt and the Command Window

99. Generate Web Services Code

100. Test Regular Expressions in Visual Studio

Index

[406]  2nd code snippet;

        EnvDTE.TextDocument textDoc =
(EnvDTE.TextDocument)applicationObject.ActiveDocument.Object("TextDocument");

should be inserted before the line:

        string selectedText = textDoc.Selection.Text;

O’reilly has published five more hacks of my choosing over on OnDotnet:

• Master the Command Window – All about using the Command Window, a command prompt junkies best friend.
• Create Comments Faster – All about GhostDoc, and written by Roland Weigelt to boot.
• Run Unit Tests Inside of Visual Studio – All about TestDriven.NET, written by Jamie Cansdale
• Hack the Project and Solution Files – Information on the format of these two files.
• Refactor Your Code – All about the new C# refactor menu in Visual Studio 2005.

You can read them all here.