Options, Text Editor, XAML, Formatting

Article
11/15/2016

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Use the Formatting property page to specify how elements and attributes are formatted in your XAML documents. To open the Options dialog box, click the Tools menu and then click Options. To access the Formatting property page, expand the Text Editor, XAML, Formatting node.

Note

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Customizing Development Settings in Visual Studio.

Auto-Formatting Events

Auto-formatting may occur when any of the following events is detected.

Completion of an end tag or simple tag.
Completion of a start tag.
Pasting from the clipboard.
Formatting keyboard commands.

You can specify which events cause auto-formatting.

Name	Description
On completion of end tag or simple tag	Auto-formatting occurs when you finish typing an end tag or a simple tag. A simple tag has no attributes, for example `<Button />`.
On completion of start tag	Auto-formatting occurs when you finish typing a start tag.
On paste from clipboard	Auto-formatting occurs when you paste XAML from the clipboard into XAML view.

Quotation Mark Style

This setting indicates whether attribute values are enclosed in single or double quotation marks. The auto-formatter and IntelliSense auto-completion both use this setting.

Once you set this option, only attributes subsequently added either using the designer or manually in the XAML view are affected.

Name	Description
Double quotes (")	Attribute values are enclosed in double quotes. `<Button Name="button1">Hello</Button>`
Single quotes (')	Attribute values are enclosed in single quotes. `<Button Name='button1'>Hello</Button>`

Tag Wrapping

You can specify a line length for tag wrapping. When tag wrapping is enabled, any XAML subsequently added by using the designer will be wrapped appropriately.

Name	Description
Wrap tags that exceed specified length	Specifies whether lines are wrapped at the line length specified by Length.
Length	The number of characters a line may contain. If necessary, some XAML lines might exceed the specified line length.

Attribute Spacing

Use this setting to control how attributes are arranged in your XAML document

Name	Description
Preserve newlines and spaces between attributes	New lines and spaces between attributes are not affected by auto-formatting. `<Button Height="23" Name="button1"` `Width="75">Hello</Button>`
Insert a single space between attributes	Attributes occupy one line, with one space separating adjacent attributes. Tag wrapping settings are applied. `<Button Height="23" Name="button1" Width="75">Hello</Button>`
Position each attribute on a separate line	Each attribute occupies its own line. This is useful when many attributes are present. `<Button` `Height="23"` `Name="button1"` `Width="75">Hello</Button>`
Position first attribute on same line as start tag	When checked, the first attribute appears on the same line as the element's start tag. `<Button Height="23"` `Name="button1"` `Width="75">Hello</Button>`

Element Spacing

Use this setting to control how elements are arranged in your XAML document


Preserve new lines in content	Empty lines in element content are not removed. `<Grid>` `<Button Name="button1">Hello</Button>` `</Grid>\`
Collapse multiple empty lines in content to a single line	Empty lines in element content are collapsed to a single line. `<Grid>` `<Button Name="button1">Hello</Button>` `</Grid>`
Remove empty lines in content	All empty lines in element content are removed. `<Grid>` `<Button Name="button1">Hello</Button>` `</Grid>`

Auto Insert

Use this setting to control when tags and quotes are automatically generated.

Name	Description
Closing tags	Specifies whether an element's closing tag is automatically generated when you close the opening tag with the greater than character (>).
Attribute quotes	Specifies whether enclosing quotes are generated when an attribute value is selected from the statement completion drop-down list.
Closing braces for MarkupExtensions	Specifies whether a markup extension's closing brace (}) is automatically generated when you type the opening brace character ({).
Commas to separate MarkupExtension parameters	Specifies whether commas are generated when you type more than one parameter in a markup extension.

Default View

Use this setting to control whether Design view appears when XAML documents are loaded.

Name	Description
Always open documents in full XAML view	Specifies whether XAML documents appear only in XAML view, without Design view. Useful for loading large documents.

Toolbox

Use this setting to specify whether user controls and custom controls are shown in the Toolbox.

Name	Description
Automatically populate toolbox items	Specifies whether user controls and custom controls in the current solution are shown in the Toolbox automatically.