I have days where I open too many query windows while working and I bet you do, too. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s a reminder that you have the ability to pin tabs in SSMS and keep your work area organized.
How to Pin
You might reach the end of your day (or maybe your first hour if it’s one of those days) with a query window dropdown looking like this:
Nobody wants to click through all of those windows tracking down the script that still matters to what they’re working on. Sure, you can try to remember SQLQuery12 is the “important” one. Will you remember that after getting distracted by e-mails, instant messages, and your dog demanding a walk?
Don’t take the chance. Instead of trusting yourself to remember, just click the pin icon on the query or queries you’re going to keep coming back to:
If you don’t trust the pin button on the tab, right click on the tab instead and select Pin Tab:
Either way, you’ll see the pin icon change to vertical indicating that the tab is pinned:
A Row of Its Own
Take this one step further. At the top of the SSMS window, select Tools > Options > Environment > Tabs and Windows.
In the Pinned Tabs section, click the check box next to “Show pinned tabs in a separate row” and click OK.
If we go back to our query tabs, we’ll see our pinned tab on top of the others:
Finding a pinned tab to return to is now only a quick glance away.
Down for the Count
The next time you come back from that walk, you’ll save yourself a few extra seconds of frustration by having a cleaner SSMS view with your pinned tab sitting on top.
This only helps if you stick to pinning what you need. Don’t start pinning every query window or you’ll be right back to the same problem. It still helps to close out when you’re finished rather than leave query windows and connections lingering.
Thanks for reading!
Chad Callihan 