Tag: SQL Server 2012

DatabaseDevelopment

SQL Server Management Studio 2012 –Tips and Tricks

on April 24, 2012

One of the biggest changes to SQL Server 2012 is that is now uses the Visual Studio 2010 Shell. Knowing that now, here are a few tips and tricks for SQL Server Management Studio 2012

Blocked Selection

Sometimes you may only want to select and copy a column of text as opposed to the normal text selection done by holding down the Shift Key. To do Block selection, you can do SHIFT+ALT and drag your mouse to only select certain areas of your text in column fashion.

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Cycle through Query Windows

I’ve known about ALT+TAB to cycle through programs (Windows). I’ve also known about CTRL+TAB to cycle through components within a given application. For example in Excel you could use CTRL+TAB to move between worksheets. I’ve never tried it in Management Studio, but it allows you to cycle through the Query Windows.

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Also, CTRL + F6 will cycle through the actual tabs without the graphic switching display.

Status Bar

Most people should be familiar with the Status Bar at the bottom of the query window, but did you know you can customize it?

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If you look under Tools –> Options –> Text Editor –> Editor Tab and Status Bar you will see a number of options that you can change.

Grouped Connections

You can go to View and select to show Registered Servers. Within Registered Servers you can create a group of SQL Servers. This then allows you to start a query that will be run against all of the servers within the group. This is where the Group Connection Color for the status bar comes into play.

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This could be really handy if you need to execute items across multiple servers. The color of the status bar is there to help you realize that that query is a group query as opposed to a single server connection.

Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a ton of Keyboard shortcuts that you can use within Visual Studio. The default settings are based on Visual Studio 2010. Here is a list of those shortcuts. SQL Server Management Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

You can get to these through Tools -> Options -> Environment/Keyboard

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I hope these are useful to you.

DatabaseDevelopment

First Look at SQL Server 2012 Management Studio

on March 16, 2012

Last week, Microsoft released SQL Server 2012. With this release comes an update to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Here is a quick glance of some of the new features…

New Font and New Color Scheme

If you take a look at the new SQL Server 2012 Management Studio, you will immediately notice the new color scheme  and that it looks just like Visual Studio 2010! That’s because it’s not built on the Visual Studio 2010 Shell. We will also notice that the default font is now ‘Consolas’.

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Multi Monitor Support

SQL Server Management Studio now supports multiple monitors, just like Visual Studio 2010. You can drag each window to another monitor. This also means that each monitor can appear outside of the SSMS shell.

Code Snippets

Now there are lots of code snippets are available and you can that code snippets via right Click Query window-> Insert snippets like following.

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Once you click Insert snippets it will open lots of built in snippets and create syntax for you directly.

You can also manage the Code Snippets from the Tools –> Code Snippets Manager… menu

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Zoom Functionality

Now you can zoom the query editor window. There is a dropdown given in left bottom corner of the window and you can zoom the query editor windows as you need like following.

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Improved IntelliSense

SQL Server 2008 added IntelliSense support. In SQL Server 2012, this only gets better and faster. It seems much more responsive, similar to what we see in Visual Studio 2010 IntelliSense.

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A New Activity Monitor Window

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Additional features in SQL Server Management Studio:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174219(v=sql.110).aspx

DatabaseDevelopment

SQL Server 2012 RTM now available on MSDN/TechNet

on March 8, 2012

SQLServer2012You can now download all of the latest RTM editions of SQL Server 2012 if you have a currently active MSDN Subscription.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions

You can read more about the new features in SQL Server 2012 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/get-sql-server/try-it.aspx

SQL Server 2012 Express Edition

For those of you looking to download the Express edition, you can do so from this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/editions/2012-editions/express.aspx