I am always surprised how many people don’t know about this trick … but I guess it isn’t really obvious since I removed the tip from the status bar … in favor of some keyboard functionality.
I thought the best way to show this trick off … is with a screencast. Enjoy!
Snoop Tips & Tricks #1: Ctrl-Shift Mouse Over
This is also VERY VERY useful if you have multiple windows in a single application and can’t reach the elements with the visual tree in the common way.
@SeriousM: very, very true. I’ve used it myself, as well, in this manner.
Basically, everyone should think of the visual tree … as something you can refresh with the Ctrl-Shift Mouse Over trick … and refresh in the sense that you might pull in a completely different visual tree … due to what’s under the mouse.
Thanks for commenting. The next trick (if I ever get to it) is actually going to be about this …
Hi, this is awesome! thanks so much!
I kept looking for this feature but not knowing it’s there – I really think there should be something on the main Snoop window to clue the users in on it and to make it more discoverable.
@Omer, yes, there is a plan to have a StackOverflow like notification in the main Snoop UI … that would cycle through these tips that I’m working on … first and foremost the Ctrl-Shift Mouse Over trick.
That was fun to use and saves dozens of mouse clicks. If you have the [Data Context] tab selected and you have typed content into the text box located near the top of the [Data Context] then you can validate your bindings as you Cntrl-Shift mouse hover over your screen elements.
@KeithSware, yep! Glad you like it. 🙂
Is there anything similar available to get Snoop to magnify a dialog or popup? 🙂
@Johan, the answer is that it depends. Sometimes you can Ctrl-Shift Mouse Over the popup itself … and even if the popup goes away, you can see (and zoom in on) the visuals in the preview pane.
Dialogs are easy … as they are persistent. You should be able to easily magnify those … or zoom in on those in the preview pane. One thing to note about dialogs, though, is that you want to first bring the dialog up … before you Snoop (inject) it. Otherwise, the main Snoop won’t work too well since it’s message pump is blocked by the modal dialog you just brought up.
If by popup, you mean tool tips, then unfortunately, you may be out of luck. Snoop doesn’t handle tool tips very well … as tool tips by their nature go away when you move the mouse. I’ve done some thinking on how to solve this … but it hasn’t gone any further than that.
Very good tip!
Golden first step to know for a beginner.