Exporting your Visual Studio Text Editor settings allows you to back up your preferred coding environment or share it with other developers. This process is straightforward and part of the general settings export feature.
To export your Visual Studio Text Editor settings:
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Open the Import and Export Settings Wizard:
- In Visual Studio, click Tools > Import and Export Settings. This opens the wizard.
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Choose the Export Action:
- Click Export selected environment settings and then click Next. This option is used to save a specific set of your current Visual Studio configurations.
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Select Settings to Export:
- On the "Choose Settings to Export" page, you'll see a tree view of various settings categories.
- Enable the check boxes for the settings you want to export and click Next.
- To specifically export your Text Editor settings, expand the Options node in the tree view.
- Expand the Text Editor node underneath Options.
- Select the checkboxes for the specific text editor settings you want to include. This might include:
- General settings (line numbers, word wrap)
- All Languages settings
- Specific language settings (C#, C++, XML, etc.)
- Scroll Bars
- Tabs
- And more sub-options related to fonts, colors, IntelliSense, etc.
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Name Your Settings File:
- On the "Name Your Settings File" page, you'll be prompted to name the settings file and choose where to save it.
- The file will be saved with a
.vssettingsextension. - Enter a descriptive name (e.g.,
MyPreferredEditorSettings.vssettings) and select a location.
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Finish the Export:
- Click the Finish button.
Visual Studio will then save your selected settings to the specified .vssettings file. You can later use the Import and Export Settings wizard (choosing "Import selected environment settings") to load these settings onto another machine or restore them after a reinstallation.
Exporting Text Editor settings is a great way to maintain consistency across different development environments or share your optimized setup with colleagues.
