Visual Studio has long spoiled us with IntelliSense, but one place where it's been lacking is when writing T-SQL. When I type in SELECT * FROM ..., why can't I have an IntelliSense drop-down list of the available tables and views in my database? Well, I can now with Red Gate Software's SQL Prompt tool. This tool runs as a little guy down in your system tray that detects when writing a query in SQL Query Analyzer, Management Studio, Visual Studio, or even other programs (like UltraEdit).
What's particularly cool is that for this version of SQL Prompt, Red Gate is releasing it for free!
I've been using SQL Prompt for a couple of days now and it's pretty slick. The IntelliSense UI and keyboard shortcuts are similar to Visual Studio's. My only gripe is that when working with a remote database the IntelliSense can sometimes take a bit longer than I'd like to pop up. I guess I'm spoiled with Visual Studio's immediate IntelliSense drop-down list, and having to wait a second and a half for the hundreds of tables and views to be populated in the IntelliSense drop-down list in Query Analyzer can seem a bit offputting. There is some level of caching, so subsequent queries IntelliSense drop-down lists come up much quicker, but at times it still feels a bit herky-jerky. I imagine that these are non-issues when working with a local database, or a database on the intranet.
Other than that micro-gripe, I've really been enjoying SQL Prompt. And with it's price tag ($0.00), there's no reason not to give it a whirl!
-- SQL Prompt Product Information
-- SQL Prompt Download Page