JetBrain ReSharper is an amazing tool that enhances the productivity of writing code and brings it to a completely new level.

I am working with ReSharper from a while now and I realized that I was not taking full advantage of it. One of the reason is that I didn’t know all the possible shortcuts available and I often relied on the mouse to accomplish a task.

The typical excuse is (from The Productive Programmer Book):

I know there’s a keyboard shortcut that does this, but I’m in a hurry, so I’ll use the mouse instead and look up that keyboard shortcut late.

The fact is that:

Later never comes.

OK, good. I don’t want to be lazy. It’s time to learn it.

What do you do?

You go to the ReSharper Official Website and you download the ReSharper Keymap. You spend some time experimenting and you decide to print the Keymap and keep it close to your desk. You try to use the keymap as much as you can, but after a while you are already completely immersed in your work that you forget to look at it and you continue to do the same as before. Maybe you just learnt only a single shortcut.

Why does this happen?

Because learning shortcuts in that way and all of them together is extremely boring. Even if you are completely aware that learning them would make you a more productive developer you don’t do that because it is so boring.

Why then not learning the shortcuts while you work without upfront preparation?

It doesn’t work! You know what will be the excuse at the end. In addition, you might not even know that in some situation there is a ReSharper functionality available to help you in that particular context.

I think that the way to go is somewhere in between and the process can be split into two steps:

Learn what are the ReSharper features and the most important shortcuts
Learn new shortcuts while you work

Would you like 6 FREE MONTHS of a ReSharper Subscription? Join the Productive C# Annual Membership now.

OK, but what are the most important shortcuts?

This is finally the right question to ask!

Because learning shortcuts is extremely boring why not consider learning first the shortcuts that give you access to other shortcuts based on the current context? In that way, you could learn new shortcuts during your work. This, in some way, is similar to have a person close to you telling what the shortcut is.

You don’t need to print a Keymap in that case!

You know how to see a contextual Keymap straight in the editor while you work that is much better!

OK, at this point let’s see the 10 Most Important Shortcuts you need to learn.

1) Navigate To: ALT + `

This shortcut satisfies all your navigation needs based on where the caret is in the code editor.

2) Generate Code: ALT + INS

3) Refactor This: CTRL + SHIFT + R

This shortcut satisfies all your refactoring needs based on where the caret is in the code editor.

4) Go To Everywhere: CTRL + T

This shortcut is fundamental to jump immediately to a specific type or symbol in your code base.

5) Quick Fix: ALT + ENTER

While you code, this shortcut provides you with a context menu with the list of possible quick fixes.

6) Go To Next/Previous Member: ALT + Up/Down

This shortcut allows you to quickly move between members in a class.

7) Insert Live Template: CTRL + E, CTRL + L

This shortcut allows you to insert a live template (included your custom templates).

8) Inspect This: CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + A

This is a shortcut to the code exploration features.

9) Run Unit Tests: CTRL + U, L

Runs all the unit tests in the solution.

10) Go Back: CTRL + –

This is an interesting shortcut that I find very useful. When you navigate to a declaration or implementation after your exploration you often want to come back to the original location. This shortcut allows you to go back to the previous caret position.

I can’t work anymore without these shortcuts.

Open ReSharper Menu: ALT + R

This shortcut is not actually a ReSharper shortcut but the simple Visual Studio Shortcut to the ReSharper Menu. All the previous shortcuts that I presented open the door to almost all the ReSharper features but not all of them. This is why it is important sometimes to visit the ReSharper Menu to check what are the others available shortcuts. This is some why represent your Keymap always available to you inside the editor. Keep it in mind.

Complete List

I hope that you found this post useful.

For convenience, this is the list of all the most important shortcuts together:

Navigate To: ALT + `
Generate Code: ALT + INS
Refactor This: CTRL + SHIFT + R
Go To Type: CTRL + T
Quick Fix: ALT + ENTER
Go To Next/Previous Member: ALT + Up/Down
Insert Live Template: CTRL + E, CTRL + L
Inspect This: CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + A
Run Unit Tests: CTRL + U, L
Go Back: CTRL + –
Open ReSharper Menu: ALT + R

Would you like 6 FREE MONTHS of a ReSharper Subscription worth $199 dollars? Join the Productive C# Annual Membership and you get six free months of ReSharper.

OK, now is time to work and be productive 😉