Summary

This chapter presented the many community options inside Visual Studio 2005. Developers can expect to feel part of a larger community that surrounds .NET. Microsoft has tried to build in a community to .NET. You see it with the Start Page inside Visual Studio, the options on the Community menu, and within the capability to search the community from the help file.

Don't forget that being part of the developer community means giving back to it once in a while. Visual Studio provides the tools to make that happen. You can create and share project and item templates, code snippets, macros, add-ins, and controls. After you've created these items, Visual Studio provides the Visual Studio Content Installer framework in which to package your shared content for distribution. Now, the next time you write a great time-saving macro or snippet, you will have the know-how to package it up and share it with others.