When in Visual Studio with a project open, if you opt to add a new item to the project, you are presented with the Add New Item dialog. This dialog box lists a bunch of different types of files you can create, as you might imagine. The problem I have with it is that it's not in alphabetical order. Well, actually, that's not the problem I really have, but it's part of what leads to the problem. The first thing I do when I get to this screen is start pressing keys to toggle thru items. If I'm wanting to create a web.config file, for instance, I start pressing w until I get there. How this dialog works, tho, is it remembers each keystroke and wants me to start typing out the full word. So, if I type ww, hoping to go to the second w* item, the dialog box thinks I'm looking for something that starts with ww. So, instead, I should be typing web c (for Web Configuration File) to finally get to the web.config file option. This drives me crazy.

Admittedly, this isn't the first time I've seen this type of list traversal, but it's most definitely not the most widely used method. The method in which I assumed is by far the most wildely used. Check Windows Explorer, for instance.

I imagine that I wouldn't have an issue if the list was in alphabetical order, so perhaps that's the answer. At least if it was in alphabetical order, I could look at the screen and deduce what's happening. Currently, it seems like it's messing up and doesn't know what to do.

One suggestion I have to resolve this would be to use some type of dynamic search capability like the Vista start menu. If I see what I'm typing and the non-matching results are disappearing, then I can better deduce how I should interact with the dialog. Personally, I think this method of interaction will drive a new wave of digging thru vast features.

Well, that's that. As far as I can tell there are 3 options: (1) provide an option as to how the list traversal works; (2) alphabetically order the list; and/or (3) implement a dynamic search. And, perhaps the right answer -- whatever that means -- is to do all 3.

While my post's title may not seem that way, I'm more of a "coder" than a "drag 'n dropper." Whenever I edit a user control or web page, I'm always in source view -- well, 98% of the time, anyway. With that, I'd love to see the ability to drag a control from the Solution Explorer to the code to have it instantiated. My main concern is when dragging user controls to HTML-based pages (i.e. master pages, web pages, and user controls); however, the concept works in just about any environment (i.e. drag server controls to HTML-based pages or drag any type of class to a code file). The concept of dragging any class file over to another seems pretty cool to me. The only problem is when people use stupid practices like including more than one class in a file. Even with that, tho, a simple context menu could solve the issue by allowing the user to specify which class to instantiate.