The hardest part about using a new technology, such as HTML 5, is getting to what features are available and the syntax. One way to learn how to use new technologies is to adapt your current development to help you use the technology in comfort of your own development environment. For .NET Web Developers, that environment is usually Visual Studio 2010.

This technique intends on showing you how to get HTML 5 Intellisense working in your current version of Visual Studio 2008 or 2010, making it easier for you to start using HTML 5 features in your current .NET web development projects.

Quick Note

According to the Visual Web Developer team at Microsoft, the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 beta has support for both HTML 5 and CSS 3. If you are willing to try out the bleeding edge update from Microsoft, then you won’t need this technique.

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Ingredients

• Visual Studio 2008 or 2010
• Your favourite HTML 5 compliant browser (e.g. Internet Explorer 9)
• Administrator privileges, or the ability to install Visual Studio Extensions in your development environment.

Directions

1. Download the HTML 5 Intellisense for Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 extension from the Visual Studio Extension Gallery.
2. Install it.
3. Open Visual Studio.
4. Open up a web file, such as an HTML or ASPX file.
5. he HTML Source Editing toolbar should have appeared.
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6. (Optional) If it did not appear, you can activate it through the main menu by selecting View, then Toolbars, and then select HTML Source Editing if it does not have a checkbox beside it. (NOTE: If there is a checkbox, then the toolbar is enabled)
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7. In the HTML Source Editing toolbar, open up the validation schema drop box, and select HTML 5.
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Et voila! You now have HTML 5 intellisense enabled to help you get started in adding HTML 5 awesomeness to your web sites and web applications.

Optional – Setting HTML 5 Validation Options

At this point, you may want to select how Visual Studio shows validation errors. You can do that in the Options Menu. To get to the Options Menu…

1. In the main menu select Tools, then Options.
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2. In the Options window, select and expand Text Editor, then HTML, followed by selecting Validation.
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Resources

• HTML 5 Intellisense for Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 extenstion
• Visual Studio Extension Gallery
• Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta

This post also appears at http://david.wes.st