Introduction

The Microsoft® Visual Studio® integrated development environment (IDE) is arguably one of the most powerful and complex development tools in the world. In 2002, Craig Skibo, Marc Young, and I decided that a book was needed to show how developers could really extend this IDE and make it their own. That book was called Inside Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003. This book, Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, is an update to that book.

Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 won't teach you programming. It will however, help you to understand the IDE and the project system, and it will tell you a lot about how you can adopt the IDE to meet your specific needs.

Support information for the book is located at the end of this introduction. If you want to send feedback or suggestions to me directly, feel free to send an e-mail to [e-mail].

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for developers who want to learn a little bit more about the Visual Studio 2005 IDE and who want to extend the capabilities of that IDE with macros and add-ins.