Most developers are familiar with using Ctrl + Space for Intellisense, or Ctrl + Tab to cycle through open windows in Visual Studio. But Visual Studio is really keyboard friendly, and you have keyboard shortcuts for almost all functionality that is foun in the menus. You can configure them according to your preferences under Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard. Here are ten shortcuts that you should definitely know to speed up your development efforts:

 

Format Document

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D: Formats the current document

 

Collapse/Expand code

Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M: Collapse/expand current element

Ctrl + M, Ctrl + O: Collapse all

Ctrl + M, Ctrl + L: Toggle all Outlining

 

Go to Definition

F12: Go to definition of current code element

 

Smart Tag

Ctrl + .: Open Smart Tag to allow adding missing namespaces or refactoring code.

 

Quick Launch

Ctrl + Q: Focus in Quick Launch text box.

 

Clipboard ring

Ctrl + Shift + V: Cycle through clipboard ring.

 

Navigate in code editor

Ctrl + ]: Navigate to matching bracket

Ctrl + –: Navigate to last cursor location

Ctrl + Shift + –: Navigate forward to cursor location

 

Comment code

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C: Comments selected text

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U: Uncomments selected text

 

Bookmark

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + K: Toggle Bookmark

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + N: Go to Next Bookmark

 

Enter Full Screen

Shift + Alt + Enter: View Code Editor in Full Screen

 

Bonus

Did you know that you can select and edit vertical blocks in Visual Studio? Just hold down the Alt key and drag your mouse over the text area you want to work with.

 

Even more advanved

Want to do something even more advanced? Check out this MSDN article for some advanced keyboard shortcuts added in Visual Studio 2013.