Version: 1.0.0

Last Updated: 2021-11-29 12:43:49PM

Related Repositories

• https://github.com/hl2guide/Awesome-Visual-Studio-Code-Extensions
• https://github.com/hl2guide/Awesome-Visual-Studio-Code-Keyboard-Shortcuts

Input

The vast majority of efficient input comes from typing on the keyboard.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts, focusing on the ones that you will use the most using the below Keyboard Reference Sheets.

This guide uses the Windows keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard Reference Sheets

These are the official Microsoft PDF files:

• Windows: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=832145
• Linux: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=832144
• MacOS: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=832143

Quickly Opening Files

To open a file quickly press Ctrl+P.

Opening Recent Files

To open any recently opened file press Ctrl+R.

Configuration

To access the Settings page press Ctrl+,.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

To set your own keyboard shortcuts press Ctrl+K then Ctrl+S.

Fonts and Font Ligatures

You can set your own custom font (for any installed font) and whether to use font ligatures or not in the Settings page.

Ligatures make it so things like != == and === render properly. Fonts must support ligatures for it to take effect.

For all coding I personally recommend using the wonderful font Iosevka: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka

Make sure that font installed and appears on an OS level first.

On the settings page use the search bar to search for Font Family.

For the results:

• Code Lens: Font Family
• Editor: Font Family
• Editor > Inlay Hints: Font Family
• SCM: Input Font Family
• Markdown > Preview: Font Family

type in Iosevka, sans-serif.

Then for the results:

• Debug > Console: Font Family
• Terminal > Integrated: Font Family

type in Iosevka Term, monospace.

Tab Size

On the settings page use the search bar to search for Editor: Tab Size.

For the Editor: Tab Size result set it to your liking. I recommend 4.

Rendering Whitespace

On the settings page use the search bar to search for Editor: Render Whitespace.

For the Editor: Render Whitespace result set it to your liking. I recommend all.

Editor

Text Selection

• Your mouse can select text easily in most scenarios.
• Press Shift+Up or Shift+Down to select lines.

Multi Cursor Editing

To add cursors at arbitrary positions, select a position with your mouse and use Alt+Click.

To set cursors above or below the current position press Ctrl+Alt+Up or Ctrl+Alt+Down

You can add additional cursors to all occurrences of the current selection by pressing Ctrl+Shift+L.

Fast Scrolling

To fast scroll press and hold alt and then press up or down or use your mouse wheel.

To resume normal scrolling simply release the alt key.

Copy Line Up or Down

To copy and entire line up or down press Shift+Alt+Up or Shift+Alt+Down.

Move Line Up or Down

To move and entire line up or down press Alt+Up or Alt+Down.

Navigating to a Line

Press Ctrl+G, type in a line number and press Enter to go a specific line.

Selecting a Line

Press Ctrl+L to select the current line that the cursor is at.

Deleting a Line

Press Ctrl+Shift+K to delete and entire line.

Formatting a Selection

Select a section of code and then press Ctrl+K then Ctrl+F to format selected text.

Press Shift+Alt+F to format an entire document.

Code Folding

When working with a large document folding (collapsing) sections of code is really useful to focus on a particular section.

• Press Ctrl+Shift+[ to fold selected lines.
• Press Ctrl+Shift+] to unfolder selected lines.
• Press Ctrl+K then Ctrl+0 to fold all sections in a document.
• Press Ctrl+K then Ctrl+J to unfold all sections in a document.

Errors and Warnings

Press Ctrl+Shift+M to view errors and warnings for the current document, depending on the type of document.

IntelliSense

For documents that support IntelliSense you can use Ctrl+Space while coding to get suggestions for method names, parameters etc.

Find

To find a string within the current document:

• Press Ctrl+F
• Type in the search string
• Press Enter to jump to the first result found

Find and Replace

To replace one or all occurences of a string within the current document:

• Press Ctrl+H
• In the first field type in the string to find
• In the second field type in the string to replace with
• Press Enter to perform one replacement OR Ctrl+Alt+Enter to replace all occurences

Regular Expression Replaces

Regular expressions are powerful and allow for:

• Prefixing
• Suffixing
• Pattern Matching

While the replace dialog is active press Alt+R to toggle regular expressions on or off.

Prefixing

To add a string to the beginning of each line.

Note: (.*) means "zero or more characters" and $1 means "the entire line".

E.g. to prefix TEXT-:

• Press Ctrl+H
• In the first field type in (.*)
• In the second field type in the string TEXT-$1
• Press Enter to perform one replacement OR Ctrl+Alt+Enter to replace all occurences

Suffixing

To add a string to the end of each line.

Note: (.*) means "zero or more characters" and $1 means "the entire line".

E.g. to suffix .zip:

• Press Ctrl+H
• In the first field type in (.*)
• In the second field type in the string $1.zip
• Press Enter to perform one replacement OR Ctrl+Alt+Enter to replace all occurences

Pattern Matching

Note: (.*) means "zero or more characters".

To replace all lines that contain A1 with paper:

• Press Ctrl+H
• In the first field type in (.*)A1(.*)
• In the second field type in the string paper
• Press Enter to perform one replacement OR Ctrl+Alt+Enter to replace all occurences

For more info on the power of regular expressions please refer to: Use regular expressions in Visual Studio

Have fun!