20 VS Code shortcuts to speed up your flow ⚡️

In this article I want to share some of my favorite and most used VS Code shortcuts that help me save time, make my life a little easier and, as a heavy keyboard user, also allow me to stay in my developer flow.

You may be familiar with some of them already but hopefully you will discover a new shortcut that you can introduce into your workflow starting right now. 🤞🏻

I jotted down the key combinations for Mac users. If you’re a Windows or Linux user, you can find the key bindings for your OS here.

Alright then, so without needing to select the entire line first...

• ⌘X - cut a line
• ⌘C- copy a line
• ⇧⌘K - delete a line
• ⌘L - select the line

And while your cursor is on a specific line..

• ⌘Enter - insert a new line below it
• ⇧⌘Enter - insert a new line above it
• ⌥↑ and ⌥↓ - move the line up/down
• ⇧⌥↑ and ⇧⌥↓ - duplicate line on the line above/below it
• ⌘] and ⌘[ - indent and outdent the line
• ⌘/ - (un)comment out the line

Or within a specific file..

• ⌘D - find other instances of selected code
• ⌥Z - toggle word wrap

Lastly, for some editor/window management..

• ⌘P - find and go to file (quick open)
• ⌘N - new editor
• ⌘W - close editor
• ⌘B - toggle visibility of the side panel
• ⌃` - toggle visibility of the integrated terminal
• ⌘2 - split screen into two editor groups
• ⇧⌘T - reopen recently closed editor
• ⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→ - view editor tab on the left/right

Happy coding!

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If you enjoyed reading this post or if it was helpful to you, you can support me by buying me a coffee — I'd really appreciate it! 🙏

Comments

[Aaron Reese]

Ctrl +k->c to comment selected lines
Ctrl + k->u to uncomment
// Comments in PHP,sql, TS and is. <!----> comments in html.

[Kurd93]

Useful, thanks with all appreciations.

[James Livesey]

Ah that's very useful, thanks! 😀

[Damian Bocanegra]

you can also use ⌘J to open up the terminal, I think it's easier that way

[Anjan Kant]

Ctrl+Break ==> Build Cancel
Run Code Analysison Solution ==> Alt+F11
Break ALL ==> Ctrl+Alt+Break
Debug Start ==> F5

[Dimitris Pliakos]

Another one is to open second terminal Ctrl+shift+5
(let's say you have a gulp/grunt/webpack watcher that you want to see if it compiles)

Tip:
Terminal toggle is Ctr+ `

[James Livesey]

I personally use Ctrl + K ➡️ Enter as it keeps the newly-opened tab sticky and non-replacable by other files when you open them too!

And of course — how could I forget — Ctrl + Tab to switch tabs!

[Pauline]

I didn't know about ctlr + tab, thanks for sharing!

[James Livesey]

No probs! It also works with many web browsers too. Just about anything with tabs!

I'm not sure it applies to VSCode (tho I bet it does) but you can also do Ctrl + 1 to Ctrl + 8 to select tabs 1 to 8, and Ctrl + 9 to select the last tab.

[Rogério Munhoz (Roz)]

Here are two that I use quite often:
Command (ctrl) + K M - Switch file language
Command (ctrl) + Shift + L - Select all occurrences of a term on the current file

[Rogério Munhoz (Roz)]

Also, Command + Option + F on Mac to auto format the current file
I'm not sure about the equivalent for other platforms as I reckon it's completely different

[Greg Fox]

⇧⌘D - duplicate the selected code.

[goyal-aman]

Hey there windows users!!! To use these shortcuts in windows on VsCode, replace
⌘ - ctrl
⌥ - alt
⇧ - shift

[Caitlyn Greffly]

This is a great reference sheet! Bookmarked 🔖

[JohnnyJab]

I am so grateful that you shared these, can't thank you enough for how much you just increased my productivity.

[Purandar]

How can I split a file in editor to an already existing right side editor.