Check out how many more tabs you can fit on a screen: Tabs, compacted Scroll down to “Tab Text” and set everything to False except for “Include file name.” When you click OK, it doesn’t take effect on existing tabs, but after you close & reopen them – ahhh, much more legible. Speaking of which, those default tabs are hideous – go to Text Editor, Editor Tab and Status Bar: Editor Tab and Status Bar I save that tab with a recognizable query file name, and then when I pin it, it pops up to the top in that separate row. I love that for frequently-used tabs – I might have a dozen query windows open, but I keep coming back to, say, the window with sp_WhoIsActive open. Under “Tabs and Windows,” check the box for “Show pinned tabs in a separate row.” This way, when you click the pushpin on a given tab, he pops up to the top like this: Pinned tab I like to open a query window too, though – after all, I’m probably opening SSMS to run queries. On startup, SSMS defaults to just opening Object Explorer. If I was you, though, dear reader, I’d set these up.

I’m constantly jumping into an SSMS on someone else’s desktop, and they won’t have the shortcuts set up, so I don’t wanna develop muscle memory for something I won’t have access to. I don’t – but it’s only because I have a wacko job as a consultant. On the Query Shortcuts screen, you should set up shortcuts for the scripts you run most often. However, when I did screenshots for presentations or clients, people kept asking, “Why does your SSMS look so weird? Is it because you’re on a Mac?” These days, I leave those options at their defaults.

There are all kinds of “best programming fonts” articles out there with great-looking fonts. On the Fonts and Colors options, I used to get fancy. On the Documents options, I uncheck “Check for consistent line endings on load” because I constantly get scripts with all kinds of wacko line endings. Here are some of my favorites: Documents options Ever go into Tools-Options? SSMS has a stunning number of options these days.

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