General Options Tab

In this tab you can set properties for the selected project.

To display the General options tab:

1. Select a project in VSS Explorer.
   
   
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
   
   
3. Click the General tab if it isn't already selected.

Note   To display this tab from within Visual Basic, after adding a Visual Basic project to VSS, on the Visual Basic Add-Ins menu, choose SourceSafe, and then choose SourceSafe Properties.

Tab Options

You can specify/change all of the following options.

Always Keep Files Checked Out

Select this box to keep a file checked out to your working folder, even if you check it in to the project database. The file is copied to the VSS database, but left checked out to you, so that you can update the database with your changes, but continue working on the file.

Act on Projects Recursively

Select this box to perform all actions on a selected project recursively, that is, the command is applied to the subprojects (and their subprojects, and so on) as well as to the selected project. This is useful if you have a project with many subprojects that you want to check out and check in as a unit.

Reuse Last Comment

Select this box to reuse the last comment for the next command. For example, if you check in a file with the comment "Added hyperlink jumps to our Help menu," and then check another file in, the same comment is entered in that file's comment box. If you modify the comment, VSS uses the changed comment for the next command.

Check In Unchanged Files

When you check in a file, and you have made no changes to it, VSS looks at this option to determine what to do.

Select one of the following:

• Check In — instructs VSS to record the checkin as a new version, even if no changes to the file are detected.
  
  
• Undo Check Out — instructs VSS to automatically undo checkout on any unchanged file you try to check in.
  
  
• Ask — instructs VSS to display a dialog box asking what you want to do for each unchanged file.
  
  
• Default — instructs VSS to depend on the specific initialization file settings for each project. This tells VSS how to determine what to do with unchanged files.

The default selection is Undo Check Out.

Use Visual Merge

Specify here when you want VSS to use the Visual Merge feature. VSS uses Visual Merge when merging files after a branch or multiple checkout. Your options include using Visual Merge only if there are conflicts, always use it (yes), or never use it (no). The default setting is Use Only If there are Conflicts. Change the setting to yes to see all changes during a merge.

Double-click on a File

Specify which command VSS should execute when you double-click on a file.

Your choices include:

• Ask — instructs VSS to have a dialog box prompt you for what you'd like to do in every operation.
  
  
• View file — instructs VSS to automatically display the file for viewing — you've no ability to edit the file.
  
  
• Edit file — instructs VSS to check out the file automatically to your working folder, and open it for editing.

The default setting is Ask.

Editor for Viewing Files

If you want to use an editor to view text files, specify the path for the selected editor in this box, or click Browse to search for an editor.

Folder for Temporary Files

Specify here where you want VSS to store temporary files, or click Browse to search for and select a temporary file location. The default is the Temp subfolder under the folder in which SRCSAFE.INI is stored.

Note   Creating your Temp folder locally, rather than on a server, may increase VSS performance.