T4 Editor for Visual Studio 2012

If you're working with T4 templates in Visual Studio 2012, you'll definitely want to check out the Devart T4 Editor. It’s a game changer for anyone who regularly uses T4 for code generation. This add in turns Visual Studio into a full featured T4 editing environment, making it way easier to write, navigate, and manage your templates.

One of the standout features is its Intellisense support. It’s not just basic it brings the full power of Visual Studio’s C# and VB Intellisense right into your T4 files. You get tooltips, code completion, parameter info, and even suggestions for template directives. It even recognizes classes and members from included files, so you’re never coding in the dark.

Syntax highlighting is another big win. The editor color codes template directives, C# code, VB code, and plain text blocks, so everything is visually distinct. And yes, you can tweak the colors and fonts just like in any other Visual Studio editor perfect for personalizing your workspace.

Navigation is smooth, too. The Go To Definition feature lets you jump straight to class or member declarations, whether they're in the current file or in an included template. Speaking of includes, the editor handles multi level template inclusion gracefully, and all included classes show up in Intellisense.

Other handy features include code outlining (for folding and expanding blocks of code), customizable editor settings (like line numbers, word wrap, and virtual space), and smart indenting that saves you from tedious tab spamming. There’s even an automatic code formatter to keep your templates clean and consistent.

Performance is solid, even with larger templates, so you won’t experience lag while editing or parsing. Plus, if you’re into ORM tools, note that the Devart T4 Editor comes bundled with Entity Developer a modeling and code generation tool for Entity Framework, NHibernate, and other data access technologies.

Just keep in mind that you’ll need Visual Studio 2012 installed to use it. If you’re still working in that version, this tool is a no brainer for streamlining your T4 workflow.