SSMS view designer - how do I give a table an alias?

Question

I'm struggling with getting SQL Server Management Studio to do what I want. Things that were totally simple and easy tasks in Enterprise Manager have inexplicably become hard or impossible.

Case in point: when designing a new view (well, in Enterprise Manager, when writing a new ad-hoc query, but that's one of the things that's almost impossible in SSMS), I used to be able to right-click a table in the diagram pane, choose Properties, and write the desired alias in the field provided. IN SSMS, I right-click a table in the diagram pane, and there ain't no Properties option.

I know I can write the aliases into the SQL pane, but that's tedious. Is there a way to easily give a table an alias in this supposedly new-and-improved interface?

(This is SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, SSMS version 10.50.1600.1.)

Answer 1

As far as I can ascertain, in fairly thorough searching of “The Googlesphere” it’s no longer possible.

Back in the day i.e. SQL Server 2005 and prior, SSMS did have a properties menu item for the tables and, on the dialog it produced, you could give the table an alias. Alas, it appears this functionality has gone.

Silly Microsoft.