If you are working with really long script files in SSMS, you might need to work on more than one part of the script at the same time. Perhaps you need to work on a function, and also on the code that calls the function.
On the Window menu, there is a Split option.
When you first do this, you’ll see a split window with the same query at top and bottom:
2026-01-03
When you create a new query file in SSMS, it automatically becomes part of a solution. You can view it in Solution Explorer. In this example, I have created two query files, and renamed the tabs without saving them, as Query 1 and Query 2:
They are in the Miscellaneous Files section as they weren’t part of a script project.
SSMS can now compare multiple files. If I highlight both the files, and right-click, I get this option:
2025-12-11
Anyone who has worked with SSMS for long, will have the experience of opening a number of query windows for short-term work, not wanting to save the scripts, and then being unable to find the one they want in the drop-down list of scripts:
The alternative to this was to save them all somewhere so you could give them a name. Then you need to clean them all up later.
2025-12-08
(Thanks to Klaus Oberdalhoff for this one)
Klaus noted that when EDIT TOP n is used, only the result is displayed. That’s different to the SELECT TOP n option where the query appears as well and can be edited.
However, after executing EDIT Top n, in the table displayed, right-click and you’ll see a menu item for Pane.
The sub-menu has the following options:
This option leads to a database diagram like this:
2025-12-07
(Thanks to César F. for this one)
If you are working with many script files and they are all over your disk/storage, it can be painful to need to keep navigating whenever you want to open one.
However, when you use the File > Open > File option in SSMS, the dialog that opens up is capable of opening operating system shortcuts, and not just files. This means that you can have a folder of shortcuts and every time you need to open one of these files, you can just have it open the same location.
2025-12-05
Early versions of SSMS included the ability to work with source control systems. The way that worked was that SSMS implemented an SCCI (Source Code Control Interface). It would let you connect to any source control system that implemented that interface.
For a while, SSMS lost any ability to talk to source control. I thought that was a pity as I make extensive use of projects within SSMS and source control is where I want them stored.
2025-11-27
SSMS has the ability to work with different encodings when you are opening or saving files.
When you use File and Open, note that beside the Open button is a drop-down arrow:
The Open With option leads to this:
In that screen, you can choose an existing value or click Add to add another program that you want to use for opening files of that type:
As an example, you might want to use a different XML or JSON editor.
2025-11-19
Several times, I’ve seen situations where a user who’s working interactively in SSMS ends up causing deadlocks and causing issues for an application that’s in use. This is even more likely for users who hold locks for long periods of time, and who work directly with production systems.
At best, they might just cause an application to hang. At worst, they might cause a poorly-designed application to terminate.
Why would a user hold locks for a long time? Many users work in what’s called chained mode, where they automatically start a transaction when they make any sort of update. Some other database engines default to that behavior, but you can choose that as a session option in SQL Server as well.
2025-11-15
The SQL Server team has been working towards making databases more standalone, and less dependent on the server, for quite a while. SQL Server 2012 was the first version that had a concept of a contained database. The thinking was that you should be able to move databases around to different servers and, in that case, users would follow with the database because they didn’t have a dependency on logins, which was the case up until then.
2025-11-11
As soon as I started working with a recent version of SSMS, I realized that I didn’t like how heavy the grid lines were in the output:
I really wanted the data to be the focus, not the lines. They seemed much darker than on the previous versions. Note that this is a personal preference. I can imagine some people preferring them as they now are. Fortunately, though, you can now change the color of the lines. In Tools, Options, Fonts and Colors, in the Grid Output section, there is now an entry for Grid Results Lines.
2025-11-07
