How do I wrap a selection with an HTML tag in Visu

Question

This seems like the most basic question in the world, but damned if I can find an answer.

Is there a keyboard shortcut, either native to Visual Studio or through Code Rush or other third-party plug-in, to wrap the current selection with an HTML tag? I'm tired of typing the opening tag, cutting the misplaced closing tag to the clipboard, moving the cursor, and pasting it at the end where it belongs.

Update: This is how TextMate handles surrounding a selection with a tag. Frankly, I'm stunned that Visual Studio doesn't seem to have a similar feature. Creating a macro or snippet for every conceivable tag I might want to use seems absurd.

Answer 1

Ctrl-X -> Type tags -> Ctrl-V is still the fastest solution I've seen as mentioned in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5109994/486325.

Answer 2

I know this is old and you have probably found the answer by now but I would just like to add for the sake of those who might not know it that this is possible in VS 2010:

1. Select the code you would like to surround.
2. Do ctrl-k ctrl-s (or right-click and select Surround with....
3. There are a variety of HTML snippets to choose from.

You can create your own SurroundsWith snippets if you do not find what you are looking for:

1. Click File and then click New, and choose a file type of XML.
2. On the File menu, click Save .
3. In the Save as box, select All Files (*.*).
4. In the File name box, enter a file name with the .snippet file name extension.
5. Click Save.

Enter something like the following sample in the XML file:

<CodeSnippet Format="1.1.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <Header>
    <Title>ul-div</Title>
    <Author>Microsoft Corporation</Author>
    <Shortcut>ul>li</Shortcut>
    <Description>Wrap in a ul and then an li</Description>
    <SnippetTypes>
      <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
      <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
    </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>
    <Declarations>
      <Literal>
        <ID>selected</ID>
        <ToolTip>content</ToolTip>
        <Default>content</Default>
      </Literal>
    </Declarations>
    <Code Language="html"><![CDATA[<ul><li>$selected$</li></ul>$end$]]></Code>
  </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>

1. Open Tools > Code Snippets Manager.
2. Click Import and browse to the snippet you just created.
3. Check My HTML Snippets and click Finish and then OK.

You will then have your shiny new HTML snippet available for wrapping stuff in!

Answer 3

For those who use Visual Studio 2017: Right click on an html/cshtml area, or select some elements to wrap, there is a Wrap With <div> button on the list.

Answer 4

I know this is an ancient thread but having come up against the issue I finally got round to making my own and as this is one of the first results in Google I figured people might find this useful.

Actually it was pretty easy, I just copied from an existing HTML snippet and moved around the literals. The following snippet will surround with a generic HTML tag, it prompts for the tag and will put it in both the opening and closing tags.

<CodeSnippet Format="1.1.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <!-- Generic HTML Snippet -->
  <Header>
    <Title>Html</Title>
    <Author>Liam Slater</Author>
    <Shortcut>h</Shortcut>
    <Description>Markup snippet for HTML</Description>
    <SnippetTypes>
      <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
    </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>
    <Declarations>
      <Literal>
        <ID>tag</ID>
        <ToolTip>tag</ToolTip>
        <Default></Default>
      </Literal>
      <Literal>
        <ID>selected</ID>
        <ToolTip>content</ToolTip>
        <Default>content</Default>
      </Literal>
    </Declarations>
    <Code Language="html"><![CDATA[<$tag$>$selected$</$tag$>$end$]]></Code>
  </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>

Answer 5

If you have Web Essentials installed, you can use Shift+Alt+W to surround a selection with a tag.

Answer 6

Visual Studio 2015 comes with a new shortcut, Shift+Alt+W, that wraps the current selection with a div. This shortcut leaves the text "div" selected, making it seamlessly changeable to any desired tag. This coupled with the automatic end tag replacement makes for a quick solution.

UPDATE

This shortcut is available in Visual Studio 2017 as well, but you must have the "ASP.NET and Web Development" workload installed.

Example

Shift+Alt+W > p > Enter