VSSettings File hosted on CodeIncubator

January 17, 2009 (Last Modified: January 17, 2009)

Steve Harman has posted up two of my Visual Studio Settings files that I use for presentations up on CodeIncubator. There are 2005 and 2008 versions (apply named 2005PresentationSettings.vssettings and 2008PresentationSettings.vssettings). You’ll want to export your own normal working settings before importing these so that you can switch back easily.

These settings will provide a white background with mostly out-of-the-box syntax hightlighting. I’ve made the selection highlighting colors yellow with black text so that it stands out better on a projector. I’ve also increased the font size for both the text editor, as many windows as I could and on the intellisense pop-ups.

Since I actually modify the intellisense popups you have to close down VS and reopen it for that setting to appear. I actually set up a short cut on my machine to start VS in my presentation mode, then another to switch back to my normal working settings (note that if I want to use the last settings loaded I just run the normal VS shortcut). You can set up a shortcut using the following target for 2008:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe”
/ResetSettings “C:{SomePathHere}\2008PresentationSettings.vssettings”

I found the setting values from the intellisense popups from this blog post by Dustin Campbell a year or so ago.