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Double Text - Starting The Program From Within Visual Studio

by george_gilbert

Double Text is a repeat text writer that works with virtually any
scripting and programming language. I use the program extensively
to store, document and repeat code snippets for all of the
programming languages in which I work. I find that it is to my
advantage, therefore, to have this repeat text writer readily
available to me regardless of where I am working in the Microsoft
Visual Studio software development environment. With the program
on the Visual Studio Tools menu, I do not have to bother with the
Windows Start menu, or with getting back to my desktop to start
the program.

Adding The Program To The Tools Menu

Here are the steps for adding Double Text, or any other
programming tool you use, to the Visual Studio Tools menu. In
Visual Studio, click on the Tools menu and then the External
Tools command. This will open the External Tools dialog box.
Follow these steps in the dialog box.

1. Click the Add button. This will add a new Title to the Tools
menu at the end of the existing titles.

2. In the Title textbox, change the new Title to "Double Text."

3. Click on the browse button to the right of the Command
textbox. Browse to the folder where the program is installed. (If
the installation path was not changed during installation, the
program will be on the C: drive. Drill down through the Program
Files and 2 Good Software folders to the Double Text folder.) In
the installation folder, select the dbltext.exe file and then
click the Open button.

4. To change the position of the program within the other tools
listed on the Tools menu, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons
to change the order of the menu contents.

5. Click the OK button.

Starting And Exiting The Program

Double Text will now be listed on the Visual Studio Tools menu.
Whenever you are working in Visual Studio, you can start the
program by clicking on the Tools menu and then the Double Text
command. Unfortunately, when you exit Visual Studio, the repeat
text writer will not also be closed. The program must be closed
separately.

Using The Program

Repeating code snippets is the process of using Double Text to
place a copy of code stored in source libraries on the Windows
clipboard. Code that is to be repeated is set up once in a source
file using the built in text editor. After a source file has been
created, whenever a new copy of the code is needed it is placed
on the clipboard with one mouse click. After a new copy has been
placed on the clipboard, the repeated code can be pasted where
needed in Visual Studio.

For repeat code that requires changes in every new copy, markers
are placed in the source file where each change is needed.
Markers can also be used to segment the source file into
selectable sections thereby letting you pick and choose the code
that is included in each new copy. Whenever a source file is
repeated, you are prompted which code to include and for 'fill in
the blanks' information. The source file stays the same while
each newly repeated copy of the code can be very different.

As an example, I have a library of source files that I use to
create new collections for data objects in Visual Basic. There
are separate libraries for building collections for objects store
in text files and in Access databases. Using these collection
libraries I can generate the object and collection classes, more
than 300 lines of fully commented code, in a few seconds.

In addition to saving me valuable coding time, the source code
that I generate from my source libraries using a repeat text
writer is bug free. That alone puts the program at the top of my
coding toolkit.

George Gilbert writes software for personal computers. One of his
popular titles is Double Text, a repeat text writer. Find out
more about this innovative program at <a
href="http://www.2goodsoftware.com/doubletext.htm"
target="_blank">2goodsoftware.com</a>.

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