In my career, I've gotten used to working with SSMS on a variety of machines. It seems that as I toiled in various environments, I'd often connect to different SQL Server hosts, or use various consoles that only had the stock Enterprise Manager/SSMS environments installed. I do like larger fonts and a few other settings, so I learned how to quickly change those items, but otherwise I often have just learned to work with the default SSMS.

However that's not a very efficient way to work. SSMS, and the Visual Studio shell on which it's based, have a number of ways to customize and modify the application to suit the way you work. You can also even export and import settings to transfer them across machines. 

Most software has a variety of settings, though I still don't change many of them. As I've matured in my career, I do look to customize my environments to suit me, but somewhat lightly. There aren't a lot of changes that I make, but I suspect that's because of the nature of my work. I tend to do what works, and I don't often explore other settings. This week I'm wondering if you have tips and tricks.

What customizations or add-ins do you use to customize SSMS (or other development software)?

I'm curious what many of you do and how you do it. I don't often explore the possibilities as I'm usually concerned with just getting work done. However I'm sure that I'm missing opportunities to work smarter. I've never been a big fan of the function keys, though I know some people love them. I've tended to rely on templates (and snippets in SQL Prompt) to work faster.

If you've got idea, tweaks, or software, let us know. I'm sure that many of us would appreciate suggestions that might help ease our jobs.