This is a listing of Microsoft Visual Studio Add-ins and tools that you need to get your job done faster, more efficiently, and with much higher quality than you thought possible.  Think of these tools as the different components that make up a swiss army knife.  These products are designed to be used in conjunction with Microsoft Visual Studio.  Since there are so many versions of Visual Studio (6, 2002, 2003, 2005, etc), some of these may not be compatible with the flavor you are running.  I have tried to find at least 3 tools for each area that I feel are best of breed, however in some cases their is really only one or two great tools.  Make sure to submit the tools you love in the comments below!

Build Tools

• Fast Solution Build 2.20 for VS.net
• IncrediBuild
• Final Builder
• MS Build Extras
• Visual Build Pro

Refactoring

• ReSharper
• Refactor! Pro

Profiler / Visualizer

• dotTRACE
• Regex Debug Visualizer
• XML Debug Visualizer

Code Search

• Koders
• Google Code Search
• CodeBase
• OnlineSearch

UML Modeling

• MDG integration

Source Control

• Subversion

IntelliSense

• Visual Assist X

Faster Coding / Templating

• CodeRush
• Smart Paster
• VSMouse Bindings
• Regions Add-In
• Command Bar
• QuickCode.net
• CodeSmith

Testing

• TestDriven.net

Documentation

• Ghost Doc
• CopySourceAsHtml
• Comment Reflower
• Writer for .net

Code Snippet Management

• Code Keep
• Snippy

Working with Win32 API’s

• Invoke.net

Window Management

• VSWindowsManager PowerToy
• VSCmdShell

Web Services

• WSContractFirst
• Mindreef SOAPscope

Team Foundation Server

• TeamPlain for Team Systems
• Team Foundation Server Admin Tool

Deployment

• Unleash It!

Reflector

• Reflector for .net

Resource Editors

• Resourcer for .net

Mathematics

• Mappack

Metrics / Code Coverage

• devMetrics

All-In-One

• CodeSmart

There are many ways to write short handed CSS.  Below are some of the best ways I have found to reduce the size of my Cascading Style Sheets.  These tricks let you specify several properties by using one line instead of endless line after line.

Fonts can he made a lot shorter than you might think.  When I work with CSS I find myself doing a lot of this:

font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.5em;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-family: verdana,serif;

This works fine, however there is actually a much quicker way:

font: 1em/1.5em bold italic small-caps verdana,serif

Backgrounds can also be condensed into one line commands vs. writing out each line.  As an example, here is the long way:

background-color:#f00;
background-image:url(background.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-attachment:fixed;
background-position:0 0;

and here is the short way:

background:#f00 url(background.gif) no-repeat fixed 0 0;

Colors can also be short handed.  This is a little known trick that works really well.  Here is what most people would write for code using color:

#000000
#FFFFFF
#445566

However, as long as you have three pairs, you can easily shorthand your annotation to only 3 characters following the pound symbol.  Take a look:

#000
#FFF
#456

Margins and padding code can be much simplified from:

margin-top:1em;
margin-right:0;
margin-bottom:2em;
margin-left:0.5em;

by doing this:

margin:1em 0 2em 0.5em;

Lists can be shortened as well by using the shorthand properties for ordered and unordered lists.  Typical CSS list code might look like:

list-style-type:square;
list-style-position:inside;
list-style-image:url(image.gif);

but would be much simpler expressed as:

list-style:square inside url(image.gif);

CSS shorthand is quicker and more efficient to use in many situations.  Support for this can vary among certain browsers, and it can also make it slightly more complex to read your CSS file.  This brings me back to the Computer Science days where we would try and write the shortest lines of code to perform a task.  In the end you could do so much in one line, however the readability of the line really suffered.  The choice is up to you!

Ajax has really taken off over the last two years.  Ajax is really just the combination of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.  I actually remember almost over 5 years ago now working with XML and JavaScript to auto-magically update navigation bars from the database.  With the advancement of Ajax, new frameworks, utilities, and software packages have been built to make the production of Ajax web sites much easier.  Below is the complete list of these tools, and the only list you will ever need!  Please feel free to submit more sites in the comments below as they will be added!

AJAX Libraries / API’s

• Yahoo Ajax Libraries
• Google Ajax Search
• Yahoo Maps Ajax API

AJAX .NET Frameworks

• ajaxium
• AJAX Engine
• Asp.net Ajax
• Ajax.net Pro
• Bitkraft
• MagicAjax
• MonoRail
• Anthem.net
• zumiPage
• Visual WebGui
• ComfortASP.net
• PowerWEB LiveControls
• emergetk
• FastPage
• WebORB for .net

AJAX ColdFusion Frameworks

• ajaxCFC
• CFAjax
• JSMX
• wddxAjax

AJAX Flash Frameworks

• Flex Framework:FABridge

AJAX Java Frameworks

• Echo2
• Tacos
• SWATO -Shift Web Application To
• ThinkCAP JX – Rich Internet Applicatons with AJAX, J2EE, and Open Source
• WebORB
• ZK – Rich Web Application Framework
• Rialto
• Taconite – Cross Browser AJAX Framwork
• The haXe Programming Language
• Web Input Completion Kit

AJAX Perl Frameworks

• Catalyst
• CGI::Ajax
• HTML-Prototype

AJAX PHP Frameworks

• AjaxAC – Open-souce PHP framework for AJAX
• AJAX AGENT – helping WEB become the platform
• Cajax
• CakePHP Rapid Development Framework
• Flexible Ajax
• My-BIC = Easy Ajax
• PAJAJ – Object Oriented AJAX Framework
• Pipeline
• TinyAjax – php5 Ajax library
• symfony – an open-source PHP5 web framework
• xajax
• XOAD – PHP / AJAX framework
• Zoop – PHP and AJAX Development Framework
• CherryPy
• Django
• TurboGears

AJAX C++ Frameworks

• Witty

AJAX Toolkit Frameworks

• AJAX Toolkit Framework

AJAX Toolkits

• AJAXLib
• CPAINT
• Dojo
• JS-Sorcerer
• MochiKit
• Plex
• Prototype
• Rico
• Sajax
• script.aculo.us
• Google Web Toolkit Designer
• Google Web Toolkit

AJAX Application Models

• https://www.xicommunity.ca

Other Great Real World Lists

• The Complete List of Visual Studio Add-Ins and Tools
• Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites
• The Complete List of CSS Tools
• The Complete List of Great Free TV Web Sites on the Internet