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Category: SQL Server Management Studio

Use The Alt Key

Published 2015-11-27 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Mallon talks Alt key:

Everyone knows you can use SHIFT + [Left/Right Arrow] to highlight text. But you can also use ALT + SHIFT + [Up/Down/Left/Right Arrow] to select a block of text or even make a vertical selection to insert a block of text on multiple lines. Or you can use ALT + [Mouse Drag] to make a block selection with your cursor.

Notepad++ works the same way.  Every once in a while, I’ll run into a scenario in some tool which doesn’t implement Alt key functionality—especially certain non-Microsoft platform database products—and it will hurt a little bit inside.

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Extended Properties

Published 2015-11-23 by Kevin Feasel

Steve Jones shows extended properties:

Once I click Properties, I get a dialog with a lot of items on the left. The bottom one is for Extended Properties, with a simple add/edit/delete grid. Here I can see the property(ies) I’ve added.

However this is cumbersome for me. I’d much rather find a way to query the information, which is what I need to do with an application of some sort. I’d think sp_help would work, but it doesn’t.

Extended properties, like Service Broker, was a great idea that floundered because there was never a good UI.  Given how much fighting Steve has to do to see one object’s properties, it’s no wonder they’re so relatively unused.  And that’s a shame, because with the right tooling, they can be a great way of documenting data structures.

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One SSMS Setup

Published 2015-11-17 by Kevin Feasel

Kenneth Fisher describes his SSMS setup:

Every time I install a new version of SSMS I make a handful of changes to the default setup. For my own notes, and in case anyone is interested in some of the things you can do with SSMS I thought I’d post a list of those changes.

I also use a darker theme, very similar to Fisher’s; mine is designed to look like vim blue.  Of course, personal SSMS settings are personal.

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Connect To Azure VM Via SSMS

Published 2015-11-13 by Kevin Feasel

Derik Hammer shows you how to connect to an Azure VM hosting SQL Server:

After you provision a Microsoft Azure VM with SQL Server there are a few more steps that you need to take to make remote connections. The procedure below starts with a fresh Azure VM provisioned and walks through the process of establishing a connection via SQL Server Management Studio, installed on an on-premises work station.

Note that this is Azure IaaS, not Azure SQL Database.

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