Dan Rigby

Here is a quick and easy way to add a Google (or Bing) Web Search link to the context menu in Visual Studio:

• Open the Visual Studio macros IDE by navigating to Tools –> Macros –> Macros IDE (or pressing Alt+F11).
• Right click on “MyMacros” and select Add New –> Add New Item.
• Select the Module template, name the module “Search”, and click Add.
• Paste the following code directly before the “End Module” line:

  Sub Search()
      Dim strUrl As String
      Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection()
      If selection.Text <> "" Then
          strUrl = "www.google.com/search?q=" + selection.Text
          'strUrl = "www.bing.com/search?q=" + selection.Text
          DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.URL", strUrl)
      Else
          MsgBox("Select Text first to Search")
      End If
  End Sub
  

• (Optional) If you prefer to use Bing for your search, uncomment the Bing line and comment out the Google line.
• Your macro editor window should now look something like this:
  
• Save and close the Macro Editor window and IDE.
• Right click on the Visual Studio toolbar and select Customize.
• Under the Toolbars tab, check the Context Menus option and the switch to the Commands tab.
• Select the Macros Category, and then select the “MyMacros.Search.Search” macro.
• Drag the selected macro onto “Editor Context Menus” -> “Code Window” and then drop it where you want it in the context menu (I place mine below the Paste command).
• Right click on the new context menu item and change it’s name to “&Web Search”.
• Click close on the Customize window.
• You are now done! If everything has gone according to plan, when viewing a source code file you should now see a new context menu item that will do a web search on any selected text when you click it:
  
  
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