Management Studio includes a
wide variety of functionality organized into thirteen tools, which you
can open from the View menu, from the standard toolbar, or from the
associated hotkey:
- Object Explorer (F8): Used for administering and developing
SQL Server database objects. The Object Explorer Details page presents
a list of objects under the selected node.
- Registered Servers (Ctrl+Alt+G): Used to manage the
connections to multiple SQL Server engines ranging from SQL Server 2005
all the way up to SQL Server 2012. You can register database engines,
Analysis Services, Report Servers, SQL Server Express, SQL Server
Express LocalDB, and Integration Services servers.
- Utility Explorer: Opens the Utility Explorer dashboard.
Allows you to create a Utility Control Point (UCP) and enroll instances
and monitor health states of those servers at a holistic level.
- Template Explorer (Ctrl+Alt+T): Used to create and manage T-SQL code templates.
- Solution Explorer (Ctrl+Alt+L): Organizes projects and manages source code control.
- Properties window (F4): Displays properties for the selected object.
- Bookmarks window (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+W): Lists current bookmarks from within the Query Editor.
- Web Browser (Ctrl+Alt+R): Used by the Query Editor to display XML or HTML results.
- Output window (Ctrl+Alt+O): Displays messages from Management Studio's integrated development tools.
- Query Editor: The descendant of SQL Server 2000's Query
Analyzer, the Query Editor is used to create, edit, and execute T-SQL
batches. Query Editor may be opened from the File ? New menu by opening
an existing query file (assuming you have the .sql
file extension associated with Management Studio), by clicking the New
Query toolbar button, or by launching a query script from an object in
Object Explorer.
- Toolbox (Ctrl+Alt+X): Used to hold tools for some tasks.
- Error List (Ctrl+\, Ctrl+E): Lists multiple errors.
- Task List (Ctrl+Alt+K): Tracks tasks for solutions.
The most commonly used tools — Query Editor,
Object Explorer, Template Explorer, and Properties windows — are
available on the standard toolbar.
Window Placement
Using the Visual Studio look and feel,
most windows may float, be docked, be part of a tabbed window, or be
hidden off to one side. The exception is the Query Editor, which shares
the center window: the document window. Here multiple documents are
presented using tabs to select a document.
You can change any window's mode by
right-clicking the window's title bar, and selecting the down arrow on
the right side of a docked window or from the Window menu. In addition,
grabbing a window and moving it to the wanted location can also change
the window's mode. Following are the available options by either
dragging the tool's window or using the tool context menu:
- Setting the mode to floating instantly removes the window from Management Studio's window. A floating window behaves like a nonmodal dialog box.
- Setting the mode to tabbed immediately moves the window to a
tabbed document location in the center of Management Studio, adding it
as a tab to any existing documents already in the location. In effect,
this makes the tool appear to become a tab in the Query Editor.
Dragging a tab to a side location creates a new tabbed document. Any
location (center, right left, top, bottom) can hold several tabbed
tools or documents. The center document location displays the tabs on
the top of the documents; the other locations display the tabs at the
bottom.
- A tabbed document area can hold more documents than there is space
to display the tabs. You can view the hidden tabs in two ways. Control
+ tab opens the active tools window and scrolls through the open files,
or the Active File arrow in the upper right corner of the tabbed
document area opens a drop-down list of the tabs.
- While a dockable window is being moved, Management Studio
displays several blue docking indicators. Dropping a window on the
arrow docks it in the selected location. Dropping the window on the
center blue spot adds the window to the center location as a tabbed
document. See Figure 1.
Tip
When dropping a window onto the arrow, make sure the cursor has to be over the arrow, or it won't work.
- Opening several windows can keep the tools right at hand, but
unless you have a mega monitor (a 24” widescreen works well!), the
windows will likely use too much real estate. One solution is auto-hiding
any docked window that you want out of the way until the window's tab
is clicked. To auto-hide a window toggle the pin icon in the window's
title bar. When the pin is vertical, the window stays open. When the
window is unpinned, the window auto-hides. An auto-hidden window must
be pinned back to normal before its mode can be changed to floating or
tabbed. You might find that you accidentally open the hidden tab so
much that you avoid auto-hiding windows. Or you might find the feature
useful.
Tip
Ctrl+Tab displays all windows and
documents. You can click a window or document with the Ctrl key still
depressed to select it. You can also use the arrow keys with the Ctrl
key still depressed and release Ctrl when the window you need is
selected. One press of Ctrl+Tab selects the most recently selected
document. Repeatedly pressing Ctrl+Tab cycles though all the documents
in the center location.
To reset Management Studio to its default
configuration (Object Explorer, Tabbed Documents, Property Window) use
the Window ? Reset Window Layout menu command. Fortunately, this
command does not reset any custom toolbar modifications.
To hide all the docked windows and keep only the
tabbed documents in the center visible, use the Window ? Auto Hide All
menu command.
The flexible positioning of the windows means you
can configure the interface to give you access to the tools in whatever
way makes you the most comfortable and productive. You might tend to
close every window but the Query Editor and work with multiple scripts
using the vertical split panes, as shown in Figure 2.
The Context Menu
In keeping with the Microsoft Windows
interface standards, the context menu (accessed via right-click) is the
primary means to select actions or view properties throughout
Management Studio. The context menu for most object types includes
submenus for new objects and tasks. These are the workhorse menus
within Management Studio.
Tip
Add -nosplash to your SQL
Server Management Studio shortcuts to improve startup time. To do this,
right-click your SSMS shortcut (on your desktop, Start menu or taskbar)
and go to Properties. In the Target window, add -nosplash after the
quotes.
