Can I record/play macros in Visual Studio 2012/2013/2015/2017/2019?

Question

Apparently macros were dropped from Visual Studio 2012.

Is there a plugin/extension/tool that will let me record & play keyboard macros (much like the record/play temporary macro in Visual Studio 2010)?

For example, I typically would use a macro when converting code from one language to another or to quickly generate properties from a text list, etc.

Answer 1

You can try the Text Macros for Visual Studio 2012-2019 extension (I am the author). It basically does the same thing as the Notepad++ macros (text editing, no UI automation).

The code is open source (GitHub), so feel free to contribute improvements :-)

Answer 2

In this version of Visual Studio, while there are literally hundreds of features, there are some we’ve actually taken out. One of those is the macros automation feature, including macro record/replay, macro projects and the Macros IDE. While we know that macros have been valuable for those who use them, unfortunately our usage data shows that less than 1% of Visual Studio developers take advantage of this feature. Therefore, we’ve found ourselves investing more deeply in the Visual Studio areas that get used every day, and have not updated macros for several releases.

Source: Macros in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview

I have started to get around this (although inconvenient) by cutting/pasting into Notepad++, record and run the macro there and then cut/paste it back into Visual Studio 2012.

Answer 3

Stand out and vote for bringing macros back!

http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/2650757-bring-back-macros

UPDATE (10/4/2013):

Yay! Thank to your votes the macros are now considered for return! Keep pushing!

We are currently reviewing the feasibility of delivering a scripting capability in a future version of Visual Studio. Please continue to offer your comments on what scripting capability we should offer while we research this suggestion.

Tony Goodhew, Program Manager, VS Pro.

Answer 4

Since using Sublime Text I found that there are in fact better ways to edit text than by using macros.

Sublime allows you to to edit your text with multiple cursors at once. It's hard to explain but there are several animations that show it off at http://www.sublimetext.com

I've also added Sublime as an external tool to Visual Studio:

• open Tools/External Tools
• add: Sublime, select the exe and use these arguments: $(ItemPath):$(CurLine):$(CurCol)
• (also move it to the top as this makes the next step easier, otherwise remember its position)
• then go to customize/Keyboard, search for Tools.ExternalCommand1 and add your preferred keyboard shortcut.

This will open the current document in Sublime at the same cursor position that you were in VS.

(also, Sublime can do macros in case you still need them)

Answer 5

MACROS ARE BACK!

Under Review → Completed

We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear, and we’ve been working on a solution. We’re therefore very happy to announce that we’ve now released a version of Macros that supports both Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013.

While we were at it, we took the opportunity to fix a couple of bugs and improved the keyboard shortcuts. We hope you enjoy it.

For more information, see the blog post here: http://aka.ms/vsmacros

We’ve also open-sourced the code under the MIT license. If you have any suggestions or contributions, feel free to create an issue or a pull request in the new GitHub repo: http://github.com/Microsoft/VS-Macros

Justin Clareburt Senior Program Manager

Macros for Visual Studio

Macros for Visual Studio is an extension for Visual Studio 2013 and Visual Studio 2015 that enables the use of macros to automate repetitive tasks in the IDE. The extension can record most of the commands in Visual Studio including text editing operations. Features

• Record and playback active document operations and Visual Studio IDE commands
• Playback multiple times
• Manage and persist macros with a Macro Explorer
• Assign keyboard bindings to any macro
• Macros recorded as JavaScript files that call VS DTE APIs
• Macro editing in Visual Studio with DTE IntelliSense
• Stop playback
• Sample macros

Answer 6

Visual Commander extension (developed by me) supports code editing macro recording and playback in Visual Studio 2015/2017/2019.

Answer 7

I just was brought to my attention that Microsoft released an extension to Visual Studio 2013 to support macro's back again:

https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/d3fbf133-e51b-41a2-b86f-9560a96ff62b

I'd advice to still vote for the feature to encourage them to make the extension available for Visual studio 2015 too: https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/2650757-bring-back-macros

Answer 8

Use Macros for Visual Studio 2013 + 2015

Macros open source URL: https://github.com/Microsoft/VS-Macros

Announcement on MSDN Blog: Macros extension: VS 2015 support and open-sourced

Answer 9

VSScript allows recording, writing, and editing macros in Lua, though I have not yet been able to make it work with Visual Studio 2015 (the command button is greyed out; documentation says Visual Studio 2005 to 2015 RC are supported).

It is currently released as a freeware.

Answer 10

The Visual Commander extension lets you automate repetitive tasks in Visual Studio.