What the Colors for Changed Lines in Visual Studio Mean -- Visual Studio Magazine

.NET Tips and Tricksby Peter Vogel

What the Colors for Changed Lines in Visual Studio Mean

If you have change tracking turned on in Visual Studio, then you'll be getting highlights in the right-hand margin of your editor window flagging the condition of lines in the current file. If you're not getting those lines and would like to, then go to Tools | Options | Text Editor and check the Track Changes option.

Here's your quick reference to the colors and icons in the editor window's right-hand margin:

Yellow: The line has been changed but not yet saved
Green: The line has been changed and saved
Orange: The line has been changed, saved, and the change undone
Little square dots in the middle of the margin: Break points
Little square dot on the right side of the margin: Syntax error
Gray block: The portion of the file that's currently being displayed
Solid blue line: The current position of the cursor

Posted by Peter Vogel on 05/22/2018

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