VS Code Shortcuts That I Would Teach Myself if I Had a Time Machine With Limited Fuel

This article was originally published in the DEV Community.


— "Hey, it's me. Listen up, I don't have much time."

— "Wait, what?! What is happening?! Who are-How did you get in my house?! Wh-why do you look so much like me?!"

— "I am you, you dum-dum. I came from the future specially to teach you some VS Code shortcuts. Now..."

— "Wait. Are you serious? You could've brought back lottery results, stock market data, but you came all the way here to teach me freaking VS Code shortcuts?!"

— "Listen, I really don't have much juice left on this thing... Just sit and pay attention please, this is impor..."

— "Couldn't you have written these shortcuts, you know, on a piece of paper?"

— "Shut up! This is important!"

— "Okay, okay..."

— "So, you should stop clicking for files in File Explorer and start using Command/Ctrl+P, then type the file name. Add :N and it will open exactly at that line number"

Example gif

— "Ooooh, we have hologram gifs in the future, nice example"

— "I know, right? Also, stop navigating the File Explorer with your mouse altogether and just use Command/Ctrl+Shift+E and arrow keys, ok?"

Example gif

— "Ok, cool..."

— "Now, if you ever need to focus on the panel again, instead of clicking the edit area, just press Command/Ctrl+1 and it will focus the first open panel"

Example gif

— "Cool, cool cool cool cool cool no doubt"

— "Use Command+Shift+[ and ] to navigate through file tabs, try Alt+Left and Right if you run Windows in this timeline. This will save you a lot of time"

Example 3 gif

— "Hard to think of it as a lot of time but, yeah, okay… You're the one with the time machine"

— "Use Command/Ctrl+B to toggle the editor sidebar, it will save you some space when coding on small screens"

Example gif

— "I knew that one!"

— "Instead of scrolling so much, use Control/Ctrl+G to go straight to the line you want, do you copy?"

Example gif

— "Roger that"

— "Use Command/Ctrl+Shift+L whenever you need to select all occurrences of some text

Example gif

— "Handy! Next one please."

— "Command/Ctrl+W closes the current tab, Command/Ctrl+Shift+T reopens it"

— "The usual, nothing new he..."

Example gif

— "Wait, I have to return now. Command/Ctrl+Shift+H is Find & Replace, you'll always forget this one, don't be too hard on yourself"

Example gif

"Wait! I have so many questions! How did I even get a time machine? Does this creates a new parallel universe? Will 49ers ever win the Super Bowl again? Hey, wait! Waaait."


EDIT: There is a whole lot of great shortcuts in the comments, you definitely should check them!


Repo in the examples is forem.

Gifs (with a hard G) were recorded with Kap on a 680x416 size with 12 fps.

VS Code theme is Cobalt2 and the font is Envy Code R.


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