If, like me, you use TextMate at home and Visual Studio at work, then you might find this handy. I like the short cuts used in TextMate (and almost all applications on Linux/OsX) to close windows and navigate open tabs.

• Grab the “Monaco” font here and install that mofo.
• Then, grab my Ultimate TextMate settings file here (right click, save as). This Theme is a variant of Rob Conery’s Vibrant Theme. I added JS and CSS settings and tweaked the C# settings a bit.
• Find and remove all bindings to “CTRL+W” and re-assign it to “File.Close”
• Install the “Windows Productivity Tools” here
• Next, find the “Window.NextDocumentWellTab” short cut (added by Productivity Tools) and unmap it from all commands. Add “ALT+SHIFT+]” for next tab
• Then, find the “Window.PreviousDocumentWellTab” short cut (added by Productivity Tools) and unmap it from all commands. Add “ALT+SHIFT+[“ for previous tab
• Find the “View.SolutionExplorer” shortcut and map it to “ALT+D”
• Find the “Window.CloseToolWindow” and map it to “ALT+X”

Note: I have cheated a bit on the last two as we don’t have a Command key, but hopefully I made it a bit simpler.

The last thing to do, is to move SolutionExplorer to the left side and remove all toolbars and tool windows. Now you should have a very clean Visual Studio and can use Resharper’s GoTo commands to navigate your solution and only use “ALT+D” and “ALT+X” to show/hide the SolutionExplorer when needed.

A challenge for you: Try to go a whole day without using the mouse. In fact, put that bugger far out of reach behind your computer.


PS: I didn’t include the Keyboard shortcuts in the settings file, as I thought you might like to mix an match those to your preference.