Enhanced Syntax Coloring

Make your code easy to read and debug by viewing it in a more meaningful set of colors.



Beyond coloring provided by the IDE, you specify colors for classes, variables, preprocessor macros and methods. Read your own code, and code written by others, in much less time.



Apply coloring beyond the source window to make code easy to read everywhere.



For example, color completion listboxes to make them easy to decipher.



Enhanced Syntax Coloring is available in most languages, including C/C++, C#, VB, HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, and XAML.

Color Palette

Choose colors using a variety of methods.

Dark Backgrounds

Visual Assist X offers two pre-set color schemes; one for light backgrounds and one for dark backgrounds. The scheme selected upon installation or when pressing Use Defaults in the VA Options Dialog depends on your current IDE color scheme. Regardless of the scheme Visual Assist X selects, the user always has the option to adjust the resulting colors.



If there is little contrast between the background and a color you choose for an item, the item is drawn in black or white depending on the background. Make sure you select colors with reasonable contrast to your background.

If you darken only the background color of text using the IDE's Tools|Options|Environment|Fonts and Colors dialog, apply enhanced syntax coloring only to source windows. There typically is not enough contrast in a set of colors so they stand out in both dark and light backgrounds.



If you darken the background color of text, you must also darken the background color and lighten the foreground color of Identifier. Your settings for Identifier should be the same as those for Text.

If you darken the background color of all windows and dropdowns using Windows' Display Properties|Appearance|Color Scheme, you can apply enhanced syntax colors to all objects.

Coloring by Usage

Color is determined primarily by how a symbol is used, including what characters precede and follow the symbol. Context is not necessarily a factor in determining color.

Coloring is efficient, particularly during scrolling, but unusual sequences of symbols and characters, and commonly used symbol names of differing types, might cause a symbol to be drawn in the wrong color. For example, if MyVar is a method in one place and int in another, MyVar is colored like a method regardless of the instance to which it refers.



Preprocessor macros in C/C++ are assumed to have global context and are colored as such even if a particular source file does not include the macro.

Constructors are colored as methods.

Apply Custom Coloring to Visual Studio Elements

The following elements may have coloring applied via the Tools | Options | Environment | Fonts and Colors property page of the IDE:

Element	Description	Default for light backgrounds
VA X Brace Error	Indicates where braces or parentheses are mismatched	{ }
VA X Brace Matching	Highlights matching braces or parentheses	{ }
VA X Current Line	Highlights the line containing the text caret	off
VA X Find Reference	Highlights read-only references to a symbol	sample
VA X Find Reference (Modified)	Highlights references to a symbol where its value may be changed	sample
VA X Find Result	Highlights results of the most recent IDE Find operation	sample
VA X Spelling Error	Underline color of misspelled words
VA X Syntax Error	Underline color of unknown symbols