A lot of Developers who have never seen ReSharper in action often do not appreciate how much more productive they could be if they would start using it. Their arguments for not trying it out usually ranges from “I don't want to rely on a tool to do my coding” to “Why should I use R# when Visual Studio is already doing most of what I want/need” or “I don't like R# telling me what to do”. While these can be easily refuted, I think the main issue is that learning the tool itself can be a bit daunting at first. There are a lot of shortcuts to remember, options to set and functionality to digest. It also means adapting the way you work with the IDE and unlearn some old habits.

So if you are one of these reluctant Developers or just want to become a R# Jedi but don't know where to start, here is my advice: Learn the three shortcuts that rule them all... and the rest will follow!

1. Navigation

Navigation shortcut Navigation options

 

2. Code Generation

 Code generation shortcut Code generation options

3. Refactoring

 Refactoring shortcutRefactoring options

Note that all the options displayed are context sensitive and depend on where the caret is placed. Hence you will get different menu items based on whether your cursor is on a class, a method, etc.

I have been coding with ReSharper since version 3.0 and I simply can't work without it. It is IMO a must-have productivity tool and because of that I have encouraged any .NET Developer I work with to start exploring its capabilities by learning these three shortcuts. So far none of them have gone back to using plain vanilla Visual Studio. Hopefully if you break down the learning curve this way, you will also reap the benefits of what some people have called “the best IDE for Visual Studio”!

…Bonus Shortcuts: Go to type and Go to file.

Search shortcuts