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Visual Studio: don't alter html formatting

by Sander Gerz November 13, 2003 08:50

One of the more usual complaints about Visual Studio .NET is that it changes the layout of the HTML when switching back and forth between design and html view of a page. When it was shown that VS.NET 'Whidbey' does not touch the formatting, people started applauding (small number maybe, but that's not the point).

So when I was browsing through the Options of Visual Studio .NET 2003, I was a bit surprised to find that there is a setting where you can turn this autoformatting on and off yourself!

This seems to work fine. So how come we're all so happy for this feature in Whidbey? Seems to me that all they did was turn off the default setting.

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Comments

12/3/2003 2:37:00 PM #

I have no idea when you posted this initially, but the reason we're happy is because that checkbox in VS.NET 2K2 & 2K3 do not actually work. Try it out: format some HTML code yourself, get around their annoying misuse of case-sensitivity that makes it impossible to produce XHTML compliant pages by manually fixing the tags; then switch to design view and come back to find your code absolutely trashed again.

Even their option under capitalization is there for asthetics only...those checkboxes sure are pretty to do absolutely nothing aren't they?

We were promised that this feature would be working in VS.NET 2003 and yet it's still broken. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the environment for C# / non-markup code, but it's an absolute joke when it comes to markup; and is encouraging me to seriously consider another solution.

Greg

12/4/2003 8:41:00 AM #

I have no idea what the issue is you're addressing. Just tried this: set the options, created an xhtml 1.0 compliant file, then formatted it a bit weird (extra spaces, empty lines, every td-element on a seperate line), switched back-and-forth between design and html view, altered text in both views. The (custom) html layout is still in tact.

Sander

12/4/2003 3:24:00 PM #

Hmm, happens to me nearly all the time, but it doesn't happen regularly.

For a nice healthy rant from some other individuals on this, check out this thread:
groups.google.com/groups%40207.46.248.16#link1

Greg

12/4/2003 8:27:00 PM #

Well, the fact that so many people applauded when Scott Guthrie showed that Whidbey does leave the original html-layout in tact, must mean that something is wrong. It's just that it has never been a problem for me. Perhaps I'm lucky

Sander

2/20/2004 6:14:00 AM #

It seems that when you uncheck the boxes, Visual Studio, will leave your formatting some of the time. For example, I have been working on a web application for the last 3 days with no problems. Now, suddenly today, all I did was double click on the form in Design mode and boom, it reformatted my code. And it reformatted it terribly. My other files that were open were fine, but not the one where I double clicked to get the Form_Load method.

Microsoft just needs to remove the feature completely. Their idea of formatting completely sucks. It sucks in FrontPage and it sucks in Dev Studio .NET. They need to just give it up and let us take care of the formatting.

Scott

2/20/2004 6:15:00 AM #

Instead of Code, I meant Markup

Scott

9/24/2004 3:06:00 PM #

I also had this extremely annoying problem with VS.net 2003 that it automatically formatted html documents despite the fact that I unchecked "Apply automatic Formatting" in the options for html/xml. I found the following workaroung. I had the C# project, so I went to the formatting options for C#, turned off all C# automatic formatting. In addition I also put Capitalization tags and values to be "as entered" for html/xml formatting.

Oleg

1/19/2005 11:05:00 PM #

I have this very annoying problem. It really make me crazy. Some one point to this post on newsgroup. I have unchecked every option.

I hope it can work. Thanks any way.

guoqi

1/31/2005 3:57:00 PM #

I too have had inconsitencies with it working (by working I mean destroying my formatting) and other times not touching it. Even with all the check boxes I could find in options unchecked. Microsoft should at least give us the option to turn it off!

Quinton Smith

2/9/2005 10:47:00 PM #

Sometimes the formatting leaves the html markup alone other times if fucks it. I was looking form a fix as I HAVE HAD IT NOW. FUCK this thing. I have a dent in my desk and broke my fucking stapler. I AM PISSED I have had to reformat my code 3 time today. When dealing with 500 lines and dozens of comments...ITS FUCKED and DOESNT WORK.

Pissed AS HELL

3/17/2005 11:02:00 PM #

I agree, its balky and messes only some of the time.. my nice <div class="clear"> </div> gets its needed nbsp removed all the time by stupid VS.NET..

GAY!

ERock

8/11/2005 8:42:00 PM #

If I ever find the group of freshman interns who wrote this steaming pile of software or the manager who decided to it was ready for shrink wrap, I will do horrible things to them and their families.

This is the worst IDE I have ever used, Open Source or otherwise.

It's shit. End of story.

vs_was_created_by_interns

8/11/2005 8:46:00 PM #

yeah right. I'm sure you haven't used that many IDEs, 'cause I've seen some that are far worse. C# Builder anyone? Stick to notepad if that's your preference.

Sander

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Visual Studio: don't alter html formatting

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