Hands up if you think the Output window is annoying in its default configuration. I’m referring to how every time you run a build the Output window pops up and interrupts you, obscuring half the code window. Sometimes I get the feeling that it was starved for attention as a child ;-)

Output Window in the way

There are a couple of easy solutions to this problem. Firstly, you can simply stop the Output window from being automatically shown during a build. Open the Options dialog (Tools->Options) and select Projects and Solutions. You will find an option under here called Show Output window when build starts. Simply uncheck this option and you will never be interrupted again.

However many people, myself included, have found that the Output window is actually quite useful to have around. If that’s the case, you may want to have it automatically open, but in a different way. My suggestion is to try changing the Output window to display as a Tabbed Document. Simply right-click on the window title bar and select Tabbed Document as shown below:

Output window to Tabbed Document

Once you’ve made this change, the Output window will open at the same level as the active code window. It will still come to the foreground, which I find useful, however to me it feels like it does this in a much more natural and frictionless way. I’d be very interested to hear whether anyone else prefers this also.

Output window as Tabbed Document

To wrap up this post, here’s a couple more things about the Output window that are useful to know:

  • Press Ctrl+Alt+O to display and bring the Output window into focus;
  • Press Ctrl+S when the Output window has focus to save the text in the Output window to an external file;
  • If you do choose to not automatically display the Output window during a build, you can redirect all Diagnostic messages (e.g. Debug.Print) to the Immediate Window, as mentioned in my first Debugging Tip of the Week.