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I've done a fair bit of research on this. I'm also pretty familiar with how to change just about every color in VS. I also found a neat site that has a theme maker on it. I don't think it's supported.

How do I make variables have their own color (strings, bools, ints, etc..) ?

I'm slowly getting used to it, but looking at oject.var.ToString(); and having it all show the same color is very frustrating/hard on my eyes. (example) In notepad++, I write my $variables in php and they show any color I want, separate from everything else. I really don't see why it can't be done. VS knows what everything is unless there's a syntax error or you haven't defined it yet/etc.. I know I can change the color on a broad scope that changes the colors on everything else too, so that doesn't help..

Thanks for any help!!

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ReSharper offers an extensive set of additional language constructs for which you can independently assign the color, including variables/fields/parameters/etc. –  Kirk Woll Mar 12 '11 at 1:16
Really? That all shows up in the same color in your IDE? Have you tried playing with Options -> Environment -> Fonts and Colors? You won't get as fine of control as you could with ReSharper, but as extensions aren't supported in the Express version, this is about the best you can hope for. But what you've shown wouldn't be all the same color the way that I've set up VS. –  Cody Gray Mar 12 '11 at 8:54
Yea, I played with just about every setting in Fonts and Colors. I fine tuned my own style and everything. It's just not natively supported. I can't afford to buy the full version of VS and ReSharper, so I'll have to make due with my current situation. What values have you changed to make objects/methods/variables have their own color? –  PiZzL3 Mar 12 '11 at 16:16
Keywords, Identifiers, and all of the different "User Types". C#'s syntax highlighting is much better than what VS supports for C++. All of these schemes have modified the colors of methods and variable names. Interfaces, delegates, enums, value types, and more can all have their own unique colors. Yes, ReSharper may be great, but I'm cheap too so I haven't bought it either. –  Cody Gray Mar 12 '11 at 18:27
@Cody Gray: I re-looked into those settings and variable, method, and object colors are all determined by the "Identifiers" color setting. This doesn't allow me to set them individually. I don't need to change Keywords or User Types/etc... As in my original example object.variable.method(); all shows the same color so matter what setting I change. This is incredibly difficult to read. Especially when things like this happen this.breakfast.today = reallyBigWaffleFactory.makeMeSomeWaffles(insertMoneyHere, waffleMix, addWater, milk, toppings).getPancakesInstead();. –  PiZzL3 Mar 13 '11 at 4:26
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I am not 100% sure whether it has it, but ReSharper extends the color coding logic with new color classes. Other than that, it is a must have extension.

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I made a similar comment, but I now realize the OP wants it for the express edition. I believe MS intentionally prevents plugins (such as ReSharper) in that edition. –  Kirk Woll Mar 12 '11 at 1:20
I'm gonna download the demo to test it on express.. but man that looks really really really cool.... Is it worth that much cash? –  PiZzL3 Mar 12 '11 at 1:46
Sadly it doesn't show up on the express version.. –  PiZzL3 Mar 12 '11 at 4:14
Sadly indeed, the Express versions of Visual Studio do not support add-ins. You would need to get a full VS version, and yes, ReSharper is worth each penny paid. –  Sebastian Zaklada Mar 12 '11 at 20:04
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Visual Studio does not support this, unless you used some sort of plug-in or third party tool.

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