SQL Search keyboard shortcut

Is there any chance of getting the keyboard shortcut back for SQL Search? It disappeared a few years ago (in SSMS 17 I think), and I have to do some clicking to get it to show (even more clicking now that my SSMS 18 has developed a bug where the toolbar list doesn't show on the context menu — I have to find my way to a toolbar list, enable the Redgate toolbar, click the SQL Search button, then disable the Redgate toolbar again). It may be that it's a limitation of SSMS since the 17 release (that was my assumption at the time it disappeared, given how significantly different 17 was to 2016), but having it back would be great.

Alternatively, as it only needs doing once per session, is there any way of getting it to remember its state so that it can be restored on startup if necessary? When I do make it show again its size, position and pin/hide status are all remembered correctly (I have it hidden, on the left-hand side, and it expands to almost-full-screen size — all of these are remembered from the last time I closed SSMS).
Tagged:

Answers

  • Alex BAlex B Posts: 1,158 Diamond 4
    Hi @SimonBarnes,

    How did you previously create the shortcut?  I've just gone through creating a shortcut for SQL Search based on this Microsoft doc on setting up a keyboard accelerator.

    I followed the "Changing a Menu Commands Accelerator Key Using the Mouse" section and just added, as a test, an "&z" to the end of the name to get "SQL Searchz" and now when I press Alt+z the SQL Search tab pops up in SSMS 2016 - SSMS18

    Though having just said that, I think your point was that you don't have the toolbar showing (in which case this doesn't work it seems).  I haven't been able to get the tab hidden to the left, as shown in your image so I don't know if would work in that case or not.

    If you can elaborate on how you did it previously then I can have a further look!

    Kind regards,
    Alex
    Product Support Engineer | Redgate Software

    Have you visited our Help Center?
  • SimonBarnesSimonBarnes Posts: 6 New member
    Hi Alex

    Thanks for getting back to me! It was a feature of the product previously rather than something I added myself. The shortcut was Ctrl-Alt-D. I assume that it must have had an exposed command with a shortcut for it automatically created under Environment > Keyboard (like SQL Prompt uses) back then.

    Nice idea on the toolbar commands, but as you say it doesn't work without the toolbar showing.

    It's not a huge issue though to be honest, I just figured that the code that did it might have been accidentally commented out or something one release :D
  • Alex BAlex B Posts: 1,158 Diamond 4
    Hi @SimonBarnes,

    I've found out what it is (or was) - it was related to the SIPFramework that helped the tool integrate with older versions of SSMS.  This is the entry I have from SSMS 2012:


    But that same entry doesn't exist in SSMS 17.9.1 or 18 as it's no longer used in those versions, so unfortunately it won't be possible to bring back, sorry!

    Kind regards,
    Alex
    Product Support Engineer | Redgate Software

    Have you visited our Help Center?
  • SimonBarnesSimonBarnes Posts: 6 New member
    Ah, I thought it was probably something like that; I was fairly sure it disappeared around the time of SSMS 17. Thanks for looking into it!
  • Alex BAlex B Posts: 1,158 Diamond 4
    No worries!
    Product Support Engineer | Redgate Software

    Have you visited our Help Center?
Sign In or Register to comment.