In this article, we will look into Task List window and how it is helpful in navigating through code. This window shows code comments that use tokens such as TODO or HACK, or custom tokens, and to manage shortcuts that will take you to a specific location in the code.

Let’s open Visual Studio 2015 and create a sample Console application named as “TaskListDemo”

We can open Task List by going to View -> Task List (or) shortcut: Ctrl + \, T.

For example, in below comment:

// UNDONE: Remove this comment from Task List
// - comment marker
UNDONE: Task list built-in token

The rest of the text is a comment.

Let’s add some comments that include HACK, TODO, UNDONE in it. These tokens are predefined, recognized by Task List and will be displayed in Task List as shown below:

code

Double-click on specific task to take you to that line of code.

We can add our own tokens as well by going to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Task List as shown below. Enter a Name, priority and click on Add.

add

We can add a bookmark\shortcut as well in the code, which is different from regular bookmark and will be shown in Task List as shown below:

code

Click on Edit -> Bookmarks -> Add Task List shortcut, [Ctrl+K, Ctrl+H]. Double-click on shortcut in Task List to go to that location in the code.

We can navigate through the shortcuts in the code by choosing a shortcut in the list, and then choose Next Task or Previous Task from the shortcut menu.

menu

The user task feature, that is present in prior versions like VS 2013 has been removed and won’t be displayed in Task List in VS 2015.

I am ending things here, I hope this article will be helpful for all.
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