I’ve committed to posting a piece of homework for you to do each month. I post at the beginning of the month to give you plenty of time to get these done. They are basic tasks that we can all use practice on. For this month check your SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) setup. Or Operations Studio, or whatever you are using. I didn’t know about you but there are times when I’ll find a small change to my setup will get rid of some minor annoyance or another. Of course, I’ll also find that I tend to put off that change and put up with the annoyance for ages. So this month fix that. Take a few minutes and look at the options for arranging your tool of choice to your convenience. You’ll probably spend 30 minutes or so and your life will be much easier.

If you are using SSMS here are some of my settings so you can see what’s available. I don’t necessarily recommend using these, they are what works best for me but if nothing else they will give you an idea of what can be done.

• Storing code in a solution
• Control what connections open when starting SSMS.
• Add keyboard shortcuts for common tasks
• Put object explorer etc on the right side of the screen.
• Other setup options