When will Visual Studio get 'Close All' ?

Question

Why is Visual Studio the only IDE without Close All?

Close All But This is close, but it is not Close All.

It is in Notepad++
It is in Eclipse
But it is not in Visual Studio.

Even more frustrating in VS 2010, under File menu, there is Close, but not Close All But This. Why?

Please Please Please VS team, put in Close All and improve Close file(s) support under File menu!

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Thanks
Jeff in Seattle

Answer 1

Hi Jeff,

You're right that there's no Close All option on the File menu by default, but Visual Studio actually does have a Close All command.  It's called Window.CloseAllDocuments, and you can easily use Tools->Options->Environment->Keyboard to bind it to a keyboard shortcut or Tools->Customize to add it to the File menu.  When you have a chance, I hope you'll try it out and let us know whether it works the way you'd expect.

Thanks for trying VS 2010 Beta2 and posting your feedback!

Brittany Behrens (also in Seattle)
Program Manager, VS Platform
http://blogs.msdn.com/visualstudio

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply, but why do the personal customization?

Why is 'Close All' not there by default?

Is this such a special request? I took a poll from 20 developers I worked with and know, and all thought it was rediculous that 'Close All' was not available by default.

It is there by default on Eclipse and Notepad++.

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Thanks
Jeff in Seattle

Answer 3

Hi Jeff,

I wasn't involved in decisions about which commands should be on the File menu by default, but I suspect the reasoning is that "Close All" and "Close All But This" are very similar.  Menu real estate, like screen real estate in general, is a precious commodity, so it doesn't really make sense to have both commands on the File menu by default.

But how to decide between them?  From a scenarios perspective, I see a few typical use cases:
1.) I have a bunch of stuff open that I don't need open anymore, and I only want to see what I'm currently working on.
2.) I have a bunch of stuff open.  I want to close everything for the day/morning/moment and then either go home/to lunch/etc. or work in a different application for a while.
3.) I have a bunch of stuff open, and now I'm switching to some other solution, project, or task.  I want to close everything that's currently open but then open a different set of stuff.

The desired action in case #2 might often be to shut down VS instead of using close all and leaving the IDE running, so I'll focus on #1 and #3.  "Close All" solves #3 well.  It can't solve #1 without requiring the user to reopen something, which is annoying at best and causes unnecessary interruptions at worst (extra prompt to save, navigation in Solution Explorer or elsewhere to find the file you wanted again, loss of change tracking data, etc.).  "Close All But This" solves #1 well and still gets close to #3 - all the user has to do is close a single tab, which can be done in one click or keyboard shortcut.  And for users who really want "Close All" on their menu, there is always the option of menu customization.

Again, this is more my individual perspective than an official explanation.  Regardless, it's too late in the VS 2010 cycle to change default menu layout, but I hope you'll find menu and keyboard customization sufficient.  Cases of personal preference like this are exactly what customization was intended to address - you can customize once and have your desired menu layout indefinitely.

Thanks again,
Brittany