The ASPX Edit Helper is a simple add-in for Visual Studio that supplements the existing auto-complete and provides some simple snippet-like support for ASPX editing.

I prefer to write my ASPX code by hand rather than using the designer in Visual Studio.  There are a few frustrating limitations to the auto-complete behaviour in Visual Studio.  Most notably, the editor doesn’t automatically put in runat=”server” or an ID attribute when you type in a server control.  ASPX Edit Helper does that for you.

Also missing in the ASPX editor is snippet support like we have in VB or C#.  If you’re a C# coder, try typing prop or foreach and press Tab twice.  ASPX Edit Helper does something similar for ASPX using “short codes” like /lbl and /txt.

So this:

becomes this:

And this:

becomes this:

Downloads and more details are at http://www.ardentdev.com/blog/index.php/aspxedithelper.

There’s an intro video at http://ardentdev.com/blog/aspxedithelper/aspxedithelper.html.

(Hat tip to Brock Allen for inspiring the add-in.)