As a web developer a lot of my time is spent in visual studio. So here is my top 3 Extensions that I think every web developer should have installed in visual studio.

1. Roslynator 2017

What does it do?

It provides code analysis and quick refactoring tools that help you to write better quality code.

Why use it?

It helps all the developers in a company adhear to the same coding standards. Rule sets can be created to warn developers of code that does not conform to agreed upon standards. Using this tool with Visual Studio 2017 makes refactoring code to adhear to standards really easy. See a squigly? Hover over it and you can fix the issue on that instance, every instance in the document, the project or evern the whole solution.

2. Web Essentials

What does it do?

So many things!

It installs a buch of extensions that are really helpful for web developers. Extentions that cover among other things:

• SASS compilation
• Script Bundling
• Accessability helpers
• Package management

And my absolute faverourite : Zen Coding. A tool that means you type something like:

div#maincontent.grey

Hit TAB and you get :

<div id="maincontent" class="grey"></div>

It saves a huge amount of time.

Why use it?

You could install various tools for all the different things that Web Essentials includes but frankly its just really convenient to just have the one Extension to think about.

3. Color Theme Editor

What does it do?

It helps you to change the colours of every element of visual studio.

Why use it?

Visual Studio is a wonderfully powerful tool, but I personally find the default theme options a big aggressive on the eyes. This tool helps tweek every detail in terms of colours. It’s important that you feel happy in Visual Studio if you use it day in and day out and styling it so it makes you happpy makes sense. you wouldn’t want to sit in an uncomfortable chair all day. So why would you put up with starting at something that makes your eyes sad all day?