Shortcut Key to Hide "Bottom Panel" in Visual Studio; regardless of number of Tool Windows

Question

Context:

In SSMS, one can press Ctrl+R to Show/Hide the "Result Panel" displayed below the query editor. After learning (and using) this shortcut, I am extremely displeased by the amount of permanent vertical space Visual Studio takes up! (I do not wish to change the general panel layout or float panels or use Auto Hide functionality.)

Question:

Is there a method in Visual Studio to toggle the "Bottom Panel" Visibility (e.g Manual-Show/Hide) with the keyboard? My wish is to, with a keyboard shortcut, toggle the Entire bottom Panel visibility at once, regardless of the number of Tool Windows that may be in it.

Attempted Approaches / Results / Observations:

The closest I've been able to come is use a Keybinding (eg Ctrl+W, C) to Close/Hide the current displayed Window (bound to Window.CloseToolWindow / Window.Hide). This approach is 'acceptable' even if one must first switch to a Tool Window in the Panel (eg Ctrl+W, O). Preferably, it could be done in a single shortcut.. and preferably the command could work as a toggle to also Show the panel..

However/regardless, both commands above (Window.CloseToolWindow / Window.Hide) leave any other Tool Windows that were also in the panel alone - which must all be closed, one-by-one, for the panel itself to Hide: the intent is that the entire Panel, as opposed to individual Windows, can be Hidden with a fixed shortcut or pair of shortcuts.

When the "Auto Hide" Panel setting is toggled, closing any Tool Window (using either command above) will Hide the Panel; this approach is also not ideal because the panel Auto Hides when navigating [back] to the Editor, which is undesirable / off-putting to my flow :}

In addition, the sometimes suggested "Close button affects active window only" in Settings -> Environment -> General affects the UI Close Button and does not appear to affect the bound (Window.CloseToolWindow / Window.Hide) commands.

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There are several similar questions, most for 'old' version of Visual Studio, that don't achieve the behavior above (see "must all be closed, one-by-one") - maybe something has changed in the years? ReSharper 2018.3 is also installed, if that provides such support. An appropriate Extension would also be suitable.

Sundew

See #52502946 – Inexpressible

Answer 1

There is no shortcut that does exactly this. But there are a few options that involve also hiding side tabs and there is auto hide that I believe is sufficient for most including you.

1. To Turn on autoHide you just need to right click at top of panel and click Auto Hide, and use dock turn autoHide off(There are unset shortcuts for all or 1 including side panels). It minimizes the panels and only leaves the titles, which you can hide as well.

2. To toggle the thin bars on sides and bottom that contain titles of the panels there is Window.ShowSideBars shortcut(unset initially)

3. shortcuts to turn on window layouts 1 to 10(ctrl + alt + number.)

4. semi full screen mode with alt + shift + enter for full screen mode.

5. Lastly other unset shortcuts that might be what you search for all in shortcuts starting with "window." like: window.RestorePanes window.FloatAll window.Float window.Hide window.Dock window.SaveWindowLayout

Oraorabel

I've been using Visual Studio for the last 20+ years and I wasn't aware of the 3rd option in the answer. Thank you very much! For more info about window layouts can be found at: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/… – Fernandafernande

The alt + shift + enter is a nice alternative. Thank you! – Deadbeat

Answer 2

<ctrl>-j works for me in a derivative of visual studio.

Quadrate